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Bactrian Camel Now Critically Endangered GLAND, Switzerland, October 17, 2002 (ENS) - The two-humped wild Bactrian camel, pictured in schoolbooks to teach the difference between it and the one-humped dromedary, is on the verge of extinction. In its newly published Red List of species threatened with extinction, the IUCN-World Conservation Union has classified the wild Bactrian camel Camelus bactrianus as critically endangered. The organization lists species threatened with extinction as belonging to one of three categories of extinction threat - critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable. Assessed as endangered by the IUCN in 1996, the wild Bactrian camel, the ancestor of all domestic camels, is now considered critically endangered. Bactrian camels are shot because they compete with domestic camels and livestock for water and grazing, and are also the target of sport hunting, the IUCN said in its assessment October 8. There are probably only 800 to 1,000 Bactrian camels left in the wild, making them rarer and more endangered than the giant panda, says John Hare of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF).
This United Kingdom registered charity, which is also registered as a non profit organization in the United States, is the world's only organization with sole aim of protecting the wild Bactrian camel and the unique desert ecosystems it inhabits in the Gobi and Gashun Gobi deserts in northwest China and Mongolia. The majority of wild Bactrian camels live in the parched and uninhabited Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur) desert in the south eastern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The only other place they still survive is the Gobi Desert in the south west of Mongolia. The wild Bactrian camels in Mongolia migrate across the international border into China and less than half return, Hare says. "They are either hunted or die from eating vegetation poisoned by potassium cyanide, one of the byproducts of illegal gold mining." The IUCN says that the effects of hybridization with domestic camels both in Mongolia and China have also contributed to population declines. The Mongolian subpopulation is known to have declined by 46 percent since 1985. The IUCN predicts that due to increased hunting and wolf predation, 25 to 30 animals will be lost annually from the Mongolian subpopulation. If these trends continue, it is estimated that there will be at least an 84 percent reduction in the population size by the year 2033. "Given the increasing threats to the Chinese subpopulations there is no reason to expect the situation for these subpopulations to be any different," the IUCN said. The wild Bactrian camels are uniquely suited to the harsh conditions of these cold deserts, says Hare. Young camels in their first two years can adapt to drinking salt water. "They are the only mammals able to do so, and it is this adaptability which enables them to survive in the Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur). Even so, the camels must migrate over huge distances in pursuit of unreliable salt water sources and meagre grazing."
These camels can grow up to 10 feet in length, eight feet in height and weigh anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds. They can live as long as 40 years. The wild Bactrian camels in China and Mongolia are the remnants of herds which crossed from North America on the Bering Strait land bridge three to four million years ago, Hare explains. "Some Bactrian camels were domesticated 4,000 years ago, but the wild Bactrian camels in the Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur) area, avoided domestication and are now genetically different from the domestic Bactrian camels," says Hare. The Wild Camel Protection Foundation is working in China with the State Environment Protection Administration to protect the wild Bactrian camel in the wild. On March 18, 1999, the State Environment Protection administration officially established the 150,000 square kilometer Lop Nur Nature Sanctuary in China's Xinjiang Province, east of the Tarim River basin. This waterless wasteland was China's former nuclear test site. The sanctuary was specifically set up to protect the wild Bactrian camel which shelters in the valleys of these mountains. The wild camel also acts as an umbrella species to protect the pockets of wild sheep, Tibetan asses and goitered gazelles that live in the northern and southern fringes of the sanctuary. With the full support of the Chinese government both at national and provincial levels, says Hare, the WCPF has assisted with the establishment of the new Arjin Shan Lop Nur Nature Reserve, an area of 65,000 square kilometers in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China that will protect the camel and other endangered species of animals and plants. Plans for another nature reserve in the north of Gansu Province in an area contiguous with the Mongolian Great Gobi Reserve 'A,' Hare says.
The Wild Camel Protection Foundation fears that even with two nature reserves in China, the economic pressure on land from natural resource development is such that the long term future for the wild Bactrian camel is not certain. To increase the camels' chances for survival, Hare says the next camel preservation effort will be a captive breeding program for wild Bactrian camels in Mongolia, which has some of the last herds of genetically pure Bactrian camels. An Australian scientist who breeds racing camels in Dubai, Dr. Alex Tinson, has developed a process for camels called embryo transfer which is similar to human in vitro fertilization techniques, Hare says. Dr. Tinson will be working with Mongolian scientists, and if the experiment proves successful, Dr. Tinson will teach his techniques to Mongolian scientists so that they can continue the breeding program. IUCN - The World Conservation Union, through its Species Survival Commission (SSC) has for four decades been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties and even selected subpopulations on a global scale in order to highlight creatures threatened with extinction, and therefore promote their conservation. The IUCN says that animals and plants assessed for the Red List are "the bearers of genetic diversity and the building blocks of ecosystems." Accurate and up-to-date information about their conservation status and distribution permits informed decisions about preserving biodiversity to be made at local, regional and global levels. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Wild Bactrian camel with 24 hour old calf (Photos © John Hare courtesy 
John Hare surveys the desert for camels. 
Marker on the China-Mongolian border warns "Poisoned land - Don't Graze" 