More Than 1 Million Feral Camels are Taking Over the Australian
Outback Photo: Obliot, Flickr, CC Not Your Typical Invasive
SpeciesSingle-humped dromedary camels were brought to Australia
mainly from India in the 19th century. They transported people
and equipment in the outback, but when rail and roads came, the
camels were let loose, "creating the world's only population of
wild camels". It is now estimated that more than 1 million
camels are spread over 3.3 million square kilometers (±1.3
million square miles), and they are causing a lot of damage to
the local ecosystems. Photo: Tambako, Flickr, CC "They can do
enormous damage," said Jan Ferguson, managing director of Ninti
One Limited, the organization that manages the Feral Camel
Management Project, which launched CamelScan. "They can eat up
to very high heights in our trees. When water is short, they go
for running water. They will take pipes and air conditioning
units off of walls, and smash up toilet systems." [...] The
camels can chug more than 50 ga