Camels And Horses.

Domestic animals arrived in Australia along with the First Fleet in 1772. Later horses also arrived and later when the opening of the Interior really began to take place, Camels and their Afghan handlers were brought over here. Over the years horses began to escape and go wild and their numbers built up but nowhere as big as the number of camels. Why?

Much of Australia is arid or semi arid (read desert) country. So if you take a larger desert area, you have a larger need for camels initially. I don’t know how many Camels were let into the wild in America but I feel pretty safe in saying it was nothing near the 20,000 or so released here in the 1930’s. Camels thrived in the more extreme desert areas where horses couldn’t. Horses competed more with the settlers in the better grazing areas, thus were hunted more. Horses had more value as riding stock or later for pet food. Hence more valuable and were hunted more.

Also with the lack of people encroaching on their new domain the Camels had very little competition from humans and with no meat eating predators larger than our Dingo (Wild dog) they had few problems or competition, hence unrestricted multiplication took place, till there is now over half a million running around the Top End of Australia. (Apparently, although I got this figure from this month’s Newspaper that info is 8 years old. According to June 2007 Reader’s Digest, the number is now one million and the camel population is doubling every 8 years!)

Wild horses on the other hand, Brumbies as they are called here, never really liked the desert, nor were their numbers ever as high as camels when in the wild, as the better ones when recaptured had some value as riding stock etc.

So Camel numbers were allowed to build up unnoticed while horse numbers, whenever they threatened local farmers gracing rights etc, were simple caught or shot. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” syndrome so to speak! So horses always in sight were largely kept under control, while Camels largely kept out of sight, ballooned until now they are a large problem to Flora, Fauna and even the geography itself with overpopulation leading to erosion etc.

So are there some things in your life that you are largely ignoring on the basis of out of sight out of Mind? Are you taking care of the squeaky wheels but not checking the rest? Beware it doesn’t turn around and bite you like the camel Problem has. Walter