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Australia exports camels to Saudi Arabia for the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca due to disease, drought, and political strife in North Africa. Australia has a large population of wild camels causing damage estimated at A$10 million.
In 2002, Australia began exporting camels to Saudi Arabia. Camels are particularly in demand during the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where an estimated 1.3 million animals, including camels, are sacrificed. Until 2002, most of the camels in Saudi Arabia came from North Africa. However, disease, drought and political strife led the Saudis to finally turn to Australia, a country that has too many wild camels. Camels were first brought to Australia between 1860 and 1907 from places like Palestine and India. In 2002, there were 500,000 camels living in the Australian outback. As their numbers grew, they began to annoy people, plants and other wildlife. Therefore, Australia began to supply Middle Eastern countries with camel meat. Saudi Arabia raises its own camels, but these animals are mainly used for racing and other domestic purposes, not for food.
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After the camels were imported into Australia and were no longer needed for riding, the camels were simply released, thus starting Australia’s feral camel population.
As of 2013, the economic cost of damage caused by feral camels in Australia is estimated to be A$10 million (approximately US$7 million).
In addition to camels, other species introduced to Australia by humans include wild horses, goats, pigs, cats, dogs, foxes and rabbits.
