Feral camels

Background

From 1840–1907, between 10,000 and 20,000 camels were imported from India, mostly to South Australia. When motor vehicles were introduced in the 1920s, camels were not needed to transport goods and many camels were released into the wild.

There are now more than 300,000 feral camels in Australia.

Impacts

Camels are highly mobile and can move over 70 kilometres each day. They prefer to eat shrubs and trees rather than grass.

Camels are known to:

  • compete with stock and native herbivores for food, particularly during drought
  • destroy stock fences, and other forms of infrastructure, including the South Australian Dog Fence
  • foul waterholes and damage ceremonial art and other cultural sites that are of concern to indigenous communities.

Without any control on the population, camels are capable of doubling their population size every 8 years.

Managing feral camels

Camels must not be released from captivity under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019.

The primary forms of management are:

  • mustering
  • shooting
  • trapping at water points.

Detailed feral camel control techniques are available on the Pestsmart connect website.

Fences that exclude camels but allow free access of native wildlife have been used to reduce damage to key waterholes.

There are expanding industries for camel meat and camel milk. Some camels are also taken from the wild for live export or used for the tourist industry.

Reporting feral camels

CamelScan is a free resource for landholders and the community to record and map sightings of feral camels, damage and control activities.

CamelScan can be used to identify where feral camels are a problem and can assist in coordinating control with local land managers.

More information

How to report an established pest animal

If you see an established pest animal, we want to hear about it!

Report sightings via the Feral Scan website or app.

FeralScan
Page last reviewed: 30 Apr 2021

 


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