Camels have always been associated with desert life, in particular in the Arabian deserts. But did you know that there is a serious camel population in Australia and many of them are being sold to United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia and other Arab speaking countries in the region to serve in robot-jockied camel racing? Continue reading.
In the mid 1800s, when the British were seriously colonizing Australia, they imported camels from British India and Afghanistan into central deserts of Australia. Camels are known to be desert resistant and live on scarce food and water resources, so they were perfect to be used to pave the way for links such as railway between the two sides of Australia. As time went by, however, and machines replaced the animals, the camels were left to grow unchecked in this desert and before long, their population reached about a million camels by 2008. A population that was actually projected to double every 8 to 10 years. In addition, as their population grew, they moved closer and closer to human populated areas and caused damages to environmental and cultural sites.
As a result, the decision was made to reduce their numbers through culling and elimination. In spite of opposition by many organizations, this method and other approaches reduced the camel population to 300,000 by 2013. This population was still large and many organizations tried to find nonlethal solutions for these poor animals. Lo and behold, demand came from countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE. How bizarre, you say? Not really.
Due to the better feed stock in the Australian deserts, the camels have better and stronger muscles. Consequently, not only their meat (which is a specialty in the Arabian peninsula) is more delicious, they are stronger for camel racing which is also very popular in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. Many of these countries started importing Australian camels and many of the animals fell in the hands of race camel owners.
The additional twist in the story is that since the camel jockeys were usually young boys and even in those areas there has been some objections to the use of these young children as racers, mankind’s genius has devised a remote controlled electromechanical whip, installed on the back of the camel, which is activated by the racer or the owner remotely. It is so cool to see it and below I have included a link on Youtube to one of these races.
You have this camel race-track where the middle is fenced off for the camels and the two open sides are paved roads where camel owners ride on top of SUVs or pickups alongside the camels, constantly pushing on the whip button to get those dromedaries moving. Consider it as some form of electronic/video game for the adult and wealthy.
So while in the West we get remote controlled drones wreaking havoc in airports and sensitive monuments, in the Arabian Peninsula, remote controlled dromedaries are providing entertainment in the deserts. Ahh what will they think of next?
To see one of these races on Youtube
Paris, March 15, 2021
Zeejay