Soaring camel population facing huge cull despite protests

Camels helped to build the Australian nation, accompanying early explorers who opened up the continent's vast, arid interior.

But now they have reached plague proportions in the Outback, and a cull which could kill more than 600,000 of them is being considered.

Wild camels, descendants of the animals imported from India and Afghanistan in the 19th century, cause about A$14 million ($17.7 million) damage to the environment, agriculture and property annually.

A million of them are believed to be roaming the desert, and the population is growing by 80,000 a year.

Attempts have been made to build up a camel meat trade, based on pet food and live exports to the Middle East. But that has barely dented the population, and nor has the increasingly frequent shooting of camels by farmers fed up with their properties being invaded.

Now a cull - or a "camel control programme", as it is more delicately termed - seems inevitable, after experts said two-thirds of the population needed to be eliminated.

The federal Government has contributed A$19 million.

But animal rights activists are horrified, and the plans have been condemned overseas. One American television presenter described Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as a serial killer intent on "camelcide".

The principal scientist with the Northern Territory government's Environment Department, Glenn Edwards, has been calling for a cull for years.

"They compete with native animals and livestock, threaten native plants, wreck fences, bores and tanks, and invade Aboriginal sites," he said.

Camels have even been blamed for the recent dust storm that caused havoc in Sydney and Brisbane, because of they destroy vegetation.

Jan Ferguson, a member of a research team monitoring the camels' impact, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "None of us like the concept of culling. But you are either getting rid of them, or you are getting rid of our biodiversity flora and fauna, and the things which Australians hold dear."

Camels were used to map and settle the country, then to transport people and goods to remote cattle stations, mining camps and Aboriginal missions.

They were also used in construction of the Overland Telegraph Line and a cross-continental railway, named the Ghan.

Once cars and trains took over, camels became redundant. They were turned loose in the desert, where they established free-ranging herds and began to breed. Australia's feral camel population is now the world's largest.