World Camel Day
World Camel Day 🐪🐫is celebrated annually on June 22. [1]
Everyone knows my love for camels (almost as much as Rexine does). I even considered buying several to get around the manganese mine I was managing in northeastern Mali, but civil war broke out and we had to leave the country.
They are also known as “ships of the desert”, so perhaps there is that connection as well. While seen as extraordinarily useful to humans as livestock, they also have the right to exist in the wild. Here are some of my favourite photos of camels from my travels.
Tuareg on a camel in the Sahara, Mali (2010)
I visited the Birqash Camel Market in Egypt in 2015, and that was a very lively time. I think I was the only foreigner there that day, but everyone was very friendly. The camels were quite dusty, many having been herded hundreds of miles to get to the market.
Following are some other camels from various places in Egypt.
Camels are indigenous to North America, but they died out here about 11,000 years ago. They even occurred in the Yukon.[2]
Camels in Beringia
Photo taken at the Yukon Beringia Centre in Whitehorse (2021)
If you are interested in more information about protecting wild Asian camels (Camelus ferus), which are listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List [3], I suggest checking out The Wild Camel Protection Foundation.
