The story of Australia's wild camel | Hacker News Reader

The story of Australia's wild camel

bbc.com

34 pointsMiriamWeiner14 comments

NB: I live in Darwin, Northern Australia, and camels are a way of life in these parts and are accepted as quite normal, despite being an introduced species.

I've heard it said that there are actually more camels in the Australian outback than there are in the Arabian desert, and in fact I recall that we had to send a bunch of camels back to the Middle East some time ago to make up for a shortage they were facing there.

NB: Our main railway system here is called "The Ghan" after the nickname given to the Afghan camel herders of old.

It make sense, the outback is absolutely vast and not densely populated, and while SA is big, it’s a speck by comparison. The camels must be pretty happy there, for whatever values ofmhappy apply to um, camels.

To prevent other Australians getting confused, I don't think "SA" here means "South Australia" (the state just under NT). Probably means "Saudi Arabia".

I've always understood that NB meant Note well? How are you intending to use it here?

I always took it as "Nota Bene", meaning "Please note", but I could be wrong.

nota bene is Latin for 'note well'

These animals are a menace when you are driving at speed down the highway. Cows, and kangaroos too. They are tall, so if you hit one at speed the 500kg carcass comes through the windscreen and wipe you out.

Same thing with Moose up here in Sweden. One just has to be careful while driving unfortunately.

The book Tracks by Robyn Davidson[1] documents her journey across the Australian desert using camels. There is also a movie adaptation [2].

I have watched the movie and found it very enjoyable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn_Davidson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracks_(2013_film)

I grew up in the northern end of Western Australia, and honestly I always thought it was stranger seeing wild donkeys walking around in the middle of nowhere than camels.

Brings back the memory of this story form a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15167479

> the animals themselves may come across as gentle, lackadaisical beasts

er, no?

the ones I've encountered have been.

They're damned docile and friendly beasts... if not terribly pretty or fragrant.

> not terribly pretty ..

People have tried to fix that...

Camels injected with Botox for Beauty Pageant.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580228837...

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