In South Australia, a helicopter is roaring through the air and the people on board are shooting wildly at the ground. The camels on the ground heard the sound and fled in all directions, but they still could not escape the executioner's poisonous hands. In an instant, camels fell to the ground in response, leaving only a few pools of bright red.
A scene of a helicopter "chasing" a camel in Australia
So why is there a picture of a helicopter killing camels in Australia? And why are there so many camels in Australia?
History of camel indefestation in Australia
Camels are known as the "ships of the desert" and mostly live in desert areas. Many people wonder, why is Australia flooded with camels? Is it just because Australia has a tropical desert climate? In fact, the root cause of camels appearing in Australia is humans.
In the mid-19th century, large quantities of ore were discovered in Australia, and a large number of railways had to be built to extract and transport these resources. At that time, the British colonists found that there were no horses, cows, donkeys and other animals in Australia that could help carry building materials, so in order to make the construction of the railway project smoother, they imported camels from Somalia.
Camels were introduced as transport
However, because of the fear that foreign camels would not be able to adapt to the Australian environment, the colonists mostly chose the more adaptable single-hump camels.
Of course, it turns out that these camels do live up to expectations, working hard in the Australian outback without being unaccustomed. In this way, the camels followed the colonists "to the south and the north", carrying raw materials everywhere. In the later period, the evil capitalists even imported a large number of camels from Africa in order to speed up the process of building railways.
Soon after, Australia's rail network was gradually improved, and the hard-working camels were "unemployed".
After the Australian rail network was improved, the camels were "abandoned"
However, unlike humans, camels live more moisturized after losing their jobs.
Because they have no natural predators on the ground. It is reported that dromedary camels can reach a height of about 2 meters, and the length can reach an astonishing 3 meters, and their weight can reach more than 500 kilograms. In the face of such a large number of creatures, Australia's native species naturally seem insignificant, and they have no advantage in terms of survival territory and natural resource grabbing.
The Australian dromedary is a bit larger than other creatures
As a result, camels lacking natural predators began to breed wildly in Australia.
According to the data, camels live about 35-40 years, and they can mature sexually at about 4 years old. Usually a camel's estrus cycle is 2 months, and each estrus lasts for about 16 days. Each female camel can produce about a dozen cubs in her lifetime, and these cubs have a high survival rate.
Camels breed frequently and have a high survival rate for their young
More than a hundred years later, the Australian camel population has grown from just over 100 to 1.2 million. Flocks of camels are like locusts, leaving many local animals without food sources wherever they go.
Artificially inserted camel "spies"
In order to protect the diversity of the local organism, and so that camels do not flood like hares before them, the Australian government has set out to eradicate these alien species.
Boundary of Australian camel distribution
Initially, the Australian government wanted to exterminate camels in the same way that emus was exterminated, but after a long period of practice, they found that this method was not feasible. Camels usually live in harsh conditions, and they live in a wide range, just driving a helicopter to find camels costs a lot of money, it can be said that "let the capitalists shake their heads when they see it".
Therefore, in order to find the camel herd more quickly, they came up with a way - find a few lone camels in advance and install positioning devices on them, so that they can become camel "spies".
A "spy" camel with a positioning collar artificially attached to its neck
Camels are social animals, and generally a camel will quickly start looking for large troops after being left alone, and they can smell the same unique smell. In this case, the lone camel is quickly able to return to the herd, and the large army is also helpful and more than happy to accept it.
In this way, with the assistance of the lone camel, the helicopter can always quickly find the location of the camel herd. When they lock onto the location of the herd, they usually fire with machine guns, which is the opening scene.
Obviously, this method can not only reduce the consumption of helicopters, but also find a large number of camels as quickly as possible, which is an effective way for the Australian government to combat flooded species.
Australia used this trick to find a large number of camels as quickly as possible
It is worth mentioning that usually in order to save trouble, people avoid doing the installation and positioning of camels many times, and they will not hunt "spies" after following the positioning to find the camel herd.
As a result, these camels could only watch as all their kind fell to the ground.
However, it is precisely with this method that the Australian government has killed about 160,000 camels in four years, which can be said to be a rich harvest and has achieved the expected results.
Is this really the right approach?
Treat alien species correctly
According to the data, most camel "spies" end up in depression. Although animals do not have the ability to think independently, they also have feelings between their kind. When camel "spies" realize that they may have exposed the location of the group, they usually give up looking for large troops, some die quietly alone away from their kind, and some will walk in teams with their fellow "spies".
Looking back at the lives of these camels, they were introduced in large numbers when they had use value, and they were hunted and killed when they had no use value.
It has to be said that the Australian government's treatment of camels perfectly pokes at the selfish point of human nature.
Some disagree with the government's approach, suggesting that the population could be reduced by introducing natural enemies of camels. However, this approach was quickly dismissed.
The camel itself is a large creature, and its natural predators are naturally not small. In order to prey more quickly, after introducing natural predators of camels, they will give preference to some small local creatures.
Camels are so large that many of their natural enemies are not small, and may not be preferentially preyed on camels after introduction
Of course, even if they eat camels first, they will not solve the fundamental problem. After all, when the camel problem is solved, what should the newly introduced natural enemies of camels do?
So far, the Australian government has not found a better solution, and in order to protect the local ecological environment, they can only continue to shoot camels under the pressure of public opinion.
However, some personnel provide them with some better handling ideas.
First of all, camel meat is not only low in cholesterol, but also rich in protein, so the local area can cooperate with other countries to develop the camel meat market. For example, Dubai's local tycoons like to eat roasted camels the most, and every time they get together or celebrate a festival, an indispensable dish on their table is roasted camels.
"Roast camel" on Dubai's table
In addition, Inner Mongolians also like to eat camels, especially the hump part. They usually make it sweet and sour and in their opinion, this dish is the best dish for entertaining VIPs.
The second is that the Australian government can bring camels together and manage them in a unified manner.
Of course, whether it is to restrict their breeding or to use camels to develop other industries, controllability is the minimum requirement, if the camel population is not controlled by humans, the end result can only be like a hare flood.
Australia has experienced a long period of hare infestation
It is worth mentioning that the mainland has always done a good job in dealing with alien species.
For example, the late-night crayfish we often eat in summer, in fact, it is also an alien species. After arriving in China, I thought that I could do evil, but I did not expect that Chinese foodies were powerful, and in the end, only artificial breeding could meet the demand.
Although there are no cases of alien organisms excessively disrupting the ecological balance in the mainland like Australia, we should still take precautions and remain vigilant against alien species to avoid a repeat of the Australian camel incident on the mainland.