Look out camels !!!

I agree with seriously culling or eliminating all ferels in the wild, camels included, but harvesting them in the desert would mostly cause more damage that the camels cause, except on the fringes and roads. They should be shot or poisened from the air and left to rot IMHO.

Cheers,
Peter

Eat a camel today, I've done it," says Professor Murray McGregor, co-author of a three-year study on the humpbacked pests presented to the government last month.

You wouldn't want to feed the Professor to often if he eats a came at each sitting.

He would have a Hump for a stomach hihi

Have you ever smelled feral camels from close up? There's no way known that I'd actually eat them ! That smell would be in my nostrils every time I saw camel as food.

I ate a camel stew in Syria and it was quite nice. Was probably a farmed camel. I'll go with footy on the stench of the feral ones.
Stuart.

If I was hungry I'd eat a cockroach. Only if it was seasoned nicely.
Stuart.

Food production alone would only account for a minimal number. The only Australian abattoir that processes camel for the table does less than 300 animals a year. The current camel population in Australia of a million (and believed to be understated) will double within the next 10 years. The amount of damage they do far outweighs donkeys, horses and goats. They are causing the regional extinction of some species of flora and monopolise and consume natural water sources that would normally be used by the native wildlife knocking them out of the equation as well.

The research by the CSIRO says that a cull of at least 400,000 camels is needed and that means shooting them just as they do with the other ferals. A very expensive operation. One of the suggestions was to pay local aboriginal communities in the west and NT to introduce supervised culling programs in their lands. There's a bloody lot of them out there let me tell you.

Mick

I tried to purchase camel meat on Friday in Adelaide's Central Market. That location is arguably the best spot to source food of any variety in the state.

It was not available, and the stall holder could not/would not tell me where I could go to procure it.

Do YOU know where I can buy some?

I settled for goat meat, which we roasted that night. At that particular stall, there were many other meats, including crocodile, for sale.

Pig, chook, kangaroo, goat, sheep, beef, camel, what's the diff?? All can be yummy.

Cheers

I agree with this statement

"Given the difficulties, it seems that kangaroos and camels will not become a staple of the Australian diet any time soon and environmentalists will have to look elsewhere for solutions to the planet's problems"

In the end it has to be a viable proposition.


Cheers

Darrell,

I've eaten a Camel steak in the Alice, & I'd defy anyone to tell the difference from beef. It even looked like a piece of bovine sirloin.

We've got some camels here in one paddock, & they've doubled their numbers over the past 20 years....from 3 up to 6. LOL

As for aerial shooting, this would raise a heap of problems. Remember the proposed brumby shoot in one of the National parks. People were getting so upset, I thought they'd start slitting their wrists.

The cost could be prohibitive too, on a large scale. Last time I looked, a 2 place helicopter (Robinson R22), costs a bit over $400/Hr. wet. A 4 place machine would be double this amount I'd say. The marksmen involved would need to be shooting a lot of camels in an hour to "pay" for the helicopter. Indiscriminate shooting of any camels would reach the ears of the sensationalism journos before too long too. More drama.

The slaughter of camels for meat would be confined to areas easy to muster, & within a profitable distance from meatworks.

I feel that the camel problem will go the way of the Murray-Darling basin. Don't do anything until it is too late, and then try to fix everything with a fistful of dollars, and they can't work out why it costs so bloody much!

Some of us retirees might be able to go into that country, camp for weeks, and do the job......expenses paid of course.

Regards,
Bob.

What a lot of fuss and bother ... and in Australia - a modern multicultural society known for its tolerance of others ... tsk tsk.

Whats wrong with having a few camels, canetoads, donkeys, cats, water buffaloe, goats, deer, dogs, pigs, alligators and carp ... living in the aust. wild.

Gday,
I dont think there is one solution for every situation.
From what I hear, When the station owners try shooting out their own properties the camels keep walking through the fences from the next property.
A lot of the properties are aboriginal communities. So why not work for the dole programs, camel mustering and slaughtering programs.
People I know who have let shooters in have been disgusted with the amount of wounded camels wandering around after the cowboys have gone out and had their fun. They are now very hesitant as to who they let in as they have stuffed it for the sensible shooter.
The gov could offer grants to Stations to adapt yards etc to make export viable and shoot the crap out of the ones out in the sticks too far.
Either way...while the Gov. continue to sit on their hands and do study after study to keep the greenies happy the problem only gets bigger and becomes more expensive.
They need to act quickly and keep on top of it.

Just my thoughts

Cheers
Hairy