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Camels: the Ultimate All Terrain Machine

by Patrick Cone

A caravan of camels wound its way down a desert wash. High walls and slickrock overhangs threw shadows across the deep-water pockets and quicksand pools of McCarty Canyon. The caravan waded again and again across the meandering shallow stream, then climbed the sandy bank to gather beneath three giant Fremont cottonwood trees, their leaves burning autumn gold.

Hours earlier in the predawn, the camp had been covered in heavy frost. Finally the sun over the Wedge had melted the ice crystals into a billion droplets that sparkled in the red light. Wispy cedar smoke rose rope-straight high into the clear sky as "cameleros" dashed from warm sleeping bags to hot coffee. By noon the chill had passed and the sun was strong.

"Whoosh, whoosh," said the riders, in language meant only for the camels.

Under the cottonwoods, the camels folded their legs like jackknives at the command. They dropped first onto the calloused pads on their front knees. Next they sat on their back legs. Front legs shuffled until their breastpad callus dropped to the hot sand.

"Got an extra stick of gum?" a rider asked as her mount slowly began to chew its cud. Lunches appeared from saddlebags. Clyde, a 2,000-pound stud camel low-crawled stealthily on his knees to taste the dried tree bark.

While this caravan is an unusual sight in the modern world, many centuries ago the camels' distant ancestors roamed the same high desert plateaus. According to paleontologists, the first camels--rabbit-sized--originated in North America nearly 40 million years ago, and over the centuries, larger species developed. The Megatylopus, which lived here about 12 million years ago, was over 15 feet tall.

Over the millennia, certain species migrated southward through Mexico into South America, and evolved into today's llama and vicuna. The larger species took advantage of the intermittent land bridge across the Bering Sea, exposed during the glacial ages, to cross into Asia. They migrated westward as humankind migrated eastward. The remaining North American camels were brought to extinction only 8,000 years ago, with human help, according to some sources.

Meanwhile, the wandering Asian camels evolved into two distinct species, which eventually were domesticated. The tall, single-humped Arabian camel, or dromedary, is still used widely in Arabia and North Africa. The two-humped Bactrian camel of central Asia is shorter and hairier.

The animals allowed the Bedouins to venture into the vast deserts of Arabia and soon became part of their mythology and folklore. For example, the Muslims recognize 100 names for God, but only know 99 of them. They believe that the camel knows the other one, but won't tell. Their faces do have that look of knowing something we don't.

Australian settlers imported camels for desert travel, because they could survive the desolate wilderness, carry 700 pounds of cargo over 30 miles a day, and only needed water once a week. At one time over 200,000 wild camels roamed Australia, and about half that number remains.

While a few animals were brought to North America in the 1700s as novelties, the U.S. Army was the first to import hundreds of Arabian camels in the 1850s for duty in the arid southwestern frontier. Lt. Edward Beale used these camels in 1857 to carry supplies for the survey of what would become Route 66 from Texas to California. Beale found camels ideal animals.

"Their perfect docility and patience under difficulties renders them invaluable," he wrote in his journal. "My only regret at present is I have not double the number."

About 400 of the Army's camels were turned loose during the Civil War. The Apaches killed many for meat, but the remainder roamed the West with sightings well into the 1950s fueling new legends. There has been more than one sighting of the infamous Red Ghost, a giant red camel with a human skeleton strapped to its back.

In the late 1800s some camels were used to carry cargo to mining districts in Nevada and California. But they frightened horses and mules so badly that the Nevada legislature passed a law in 1875 outlawing their use on public thoroughfares.

And while western lore says the camel experiment failed because they were obnoxious, stubborn, dangerous, bad smelling, and cantankerous--spitting, biting, and bucking when humans approached--the truth is quite different.

They are easygoing, social animals, very intelligent, and are wonderfully adapted to life in harsh environments. They are easy to ride, sure-footed and a lot of fun to be around. Dr. Charmian Wright is a Park City veterinarian who, with her husband, owns 9 dromedaries, and operates the first, and so far only, commercial camel trekking operation in the Americas. She too sees a different side to these unusual animals.

"Camels are very responsive to the way they're treated," says Dr. Wright. "They're less tolerant to bad treatment (than horses) and respond well to good care. They have very long memories. They know what's fair."

Described often as a "horse designed by committee," camels do seem to be part horse, part goat, part giraffe, and part cow. Their long legs devour distance--40 miles per hour at full gallop--and their broad, padded feet leave almost no track. They are very surefooted, even on rocky surfaces. While Dr. Wright feeds her camels grass hay at home, their tough mouths and powerful teeth will let them eat nearly anything they find, from thorns to bark to twigs. One of their favorites is the feathery tamarisk tree, an import that chokes many southwest watercourses.

The camel is a ruminant with three separate stomach compartments, one less than the common cow. Their thirst is legendary, however, and while they only need to drink every 5 to 7 days, they can drink up to 50 gallons of water in an hour.

The camel's most prominent feature is its hump, which is similar to the bison's and contains all its body fat. With no fat elsewhere on their body, this accounts for their extremely dense, heavy, and solid body, which feels somewhat like a carpet-covered piece of wood. Besides the thick callous pads that the camel sits on, there are other peculiar adaptations for desert life. Long eyelashes, small furry ears, and closable nostrils keep sand on the outside of the camel.

Because a camel chews its cud, a bit won't work. Instead, the camels are controlled with a normal rein connected to a wooden nose peg.

The five basic verbal commands are simple to master. Say "whoosh" and your camel folds up, drops to your feet, and you climb up into a fleece-lined saddle. Say "hut," and they stand. (Make sure your feet are in your stirrups, it's a long way down.) "Walkup" gets the camels moving, "hut-hut" really gets them moving, and "heaah" is better left to someone prepared to ride like the wind.

After Dr. Wright and husband Gordon Croissant, a local pilot, took a camel trek through Australia, they decided to launch their own trekking business in the west.

"I've been fascinated with camels ever since I was a young girl," says Dr. Wright.

In 1991 they purchased their first camel, Liza, a female. She gave birth in February 1995. Liza's boyfriend, Clyde, weighs a ton and stands nearly eight feet tall. On treks he can carry half his own weight. Three other animals--Quasimodo, Curly and Bill--were trained as movie animals, working with Michael Jackson and others.

Last spring Dr. Wright took a group of camel trekkers along a hundred miles of the original camel trail in northern Arizona, much to the delight of historians and locals. Eventually she'd like to retrace the entire Beale's Wagon Road by camel.

After an afternoon of canyon exploration the riders dismounted for their hike to the rim. Straps, which dangled from their saddles, pulled them up the steep hill behind their animals. As the sun set over the southern Wasatch, they remounted their camels and rode the dusty rim-trail back to camp.

Dr. Wright's Park City Camel Ventures is the only commercial camel-trekking business in the Western Hemisphere. She can be reached at 801-649-6273.

Copyright © 1999 Jim Elder. All rights reserved.

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