Ships of the desert: living symbol of a long heritage

It did - and still does - provide food and clothing, and helps conserve the desert ecology... Over the years, though technology has begun to play a more important role in everyday life, the importance for the camel - the ubiquitous animal of the desert - has not lessened for the people of the UAE. The bond endures. If anything, it has only grown stronger...


A natural resource conservationist. The pollinator of desert foliage. Friend and provider for humans since time immemorial...

That's the camel. No domesticated animal is better adapted to the desert. To nomadic tribes in former times, it provided food, clothing and transport, working in the most exacting of natural environments, without consuming water and vegetation for extended periods.

Yet, as a farm animal used for milk and meat, it lost out to the cow even on its own arid turf. At the camel souq in Buraimi, Oman, it is business as usual, which is not exactly brisk.

Camels have been brought here - calves, barely a few days old, accompanied by long-limbed, hulking adults; dark coloured and light. Some are standing and chewing silently on hay provided in enclosures, some are crouching on the hot sand and permitting us to sit on their saddle (assisted by their keepers, of course) or spitting at us in annoyance; nuzzling our cameras curiously, or bellowing in panic as we approach them. Some are docile, others display hints of aggression.

Camels have been brought here to be sold for milk, meat, hide or for breeding. Some may sell for Dh1,000 and some for up to Dh5,000 or more, depending on the breed.

At the souq, we meet Omer, a school teacher from Sudan, whose economic needs have compelled him to trade his stimulating work for one of loading camels on trucks in Buraimi.

It is nigh impossible to think of the Arabian desert without the camel. This has been, and still is, camel country. They roam the sands, browsing on vegetation. Camps for breeding them dot the countryside; highways are lined with fencing to prevent them from straying on roads; camel crossings are sign-posted; the camel souq assembles them in hundreds...

And camel racing? That's big business. Very big. There are around 120,000 camels in the UAE and almost all of them are used for racing. If it weren't for the camel, civilisation wouldn't have developed in Arabia. And if it weren't for racing, the ruminating mammal that sustained human life here may well have been forgotten – because it wouldn't be needed any more.

Why would it? Today numerous cow farms provide milk and meat; 4 WDs make access to every nook and cranny of the desert wilderness possible; and providing camel rides for tourists certainly wouldn't provide economic sustainability to support a healthy camel population.

As things stand, it is the deep emotional attachment that Arabs have for this remarkably well-adapted desert animal, and their love for racing it, that has perpetuated an animated interest in camels – at least in this part of the world. The interest has, of late, spurred research, not only targeting enhanced populations of tougher, faster dromedaries for sport, but also on camels as sources of nutrition and economic succour in poor, famine-stricken regions that can scarce afford such studies.

Which is just as well because, till the 1980s, scientists ignored camels... people were prejudiced against these ponderous creatures that were viewed as archaic - too nomadic to provide a marketable entity - and there wasn't much money for camel research anyway.

Only the Bedouins, who for years, rode them in a harsh environment and subsisted on camel milk, recognised their value: that it was possible to live in the Arabian desert with their help only.

Outside of Arabia, however, this recognition remained scant. On the other hand, cattle prospered as farm animals. These even penetrated the Arabian desert, exerting enormous pressure on the environment – natural vegetation, water resources and energy.

"It is a pity that people have European breed cows in the desert, when they have this wonderful animal, the camel, which produces a better quality (more nutritious), bigger quantity and tasty (if not tastier!) milk even without being watered every day," remarks Dr. Ulrich Wernery, scientific director, Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Dubai.