Too much of something can’t be good. The Australian government did something in the past that has grown out of proportion and has become a burning problem at present. To save transportation cost and resources camels were imported in the 1800s from India, Arabia and Afghanistan. The logic behind importing camel herds must have been their capability of working in the most adverse conditions and without any maintenance. What they did not foresee was that the humpback camels will multiply themselves with time. The explosion in the number of camels has led to the present problem. Both ecological scientists and owners of lands have become worried about the increasing animals commonly found include kangaroos, Koalas, snakes and spiders of great many varieties. Now more than 750,000 camels have become a part of the Australian fauna.
How did it all happen?
Hardy and strong animals were required for transporting goods and help in the works at the outback of Australia. With the turn of the century combustion engines came into being and there was no need of using the camels anymore as transportation became both cheap and fast. The camels, which were maintained till then by herdsmen, were let out in the wilderness. These camels started breeding in the wilderness without any restriction. Australia has lots of open space and wide wilderness spread all over. The low density of human population encouraged the camels to wander and graze freely. The camel population has spread over the vast areas of Queensland, West Australia and South Australia.
Nature explorer Simon Reeve has told BBC News that they are great drinkers. It is known to all how camels do not need regular water supply for their survival. But it seems that living in the lush green wilderness of Australia has changed their habits. They can drink gallons of water at a time. The camels are reckless and they are damaging the fences, pipelines and other infrastructural elements of the farms. They drink up the water stored for growing crops and other purposes. Such activities on the part of the feral camels are responsible for substantial monetary loss for local farm owners and businessmen.
The growth in the number of camels can lead to ecological imbalance. They are ravenously eating into the share of vegetation that should feed the aboriginal animals. As no easy solutions are available to this problem, the local businessmen and farm owners are shooting the camels and killing them. The camels are also being sold for meat. These violent methods of reducing the problem have made the animal rights activists concerned. The Australian Feral Camel Management program was launched by the Australian government in 2010. Despite of the governmental help the locales consider shooting the camel herds from helicopters the only viable means of solving this issue.
