AFCMP Newsletter - March 2011

WA camel group meets

The Western Australian Operations Group held its inaugural meeting in Perth on 22 February 2011 to inform key project partners about aims and governance of the Australian Feral Camel Management Project. The Group comprises representatives from the WA Department of Agriculture and Food, commercial camel use industry, pastoralists and graziers and Aboriginal organisations. Members provided updates on camel impact monitoring and management activities they are involved with, and the Group held preliminary discussions about the projected workplan in WA for 2011-12. The members of the group are Andrew Woolnough, Department of Agriculture and Food WA (Chair); Dennis Rafferty, Department of Agriculture and Food WA (Executive Officer); Quentin Hart, Ninti One Limited; Alex Knight, Ngaanyatjarra Council (not present); Scott Mills (proxy for Robin Mills, pastoralist); Chris O'Hara, commercial use industry representative; Rob Thomas, Central Desert Native Title Services; and Peter See, Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa. Observers at this meeting were John Asher, WA Department of Environment and Conservation; Mac Jensen, Department of Agriculture and Food WA; and Andrew Longbottom, Department of Agriculture and Food WA.  

Measuring camel damage

Measuring the extent of damage that feral camels cause to the environment is a complex business. It raises questions such as, "Do trees survive this level of browsing by feral camels?" "Are plants growing enough to produce seed and the subsequent new plants after the feral camels browse them?" "Will feral camel damage to one plant species result in other species taking over, changing the species mix?"

To answer these questions the MERI on-ground monitoring group has developed methodologies to assess the damage caused by feral camels. They began by searching the scientific literature for reports on damage inflicted by elephants, giraffe, elk, moose and other browsing species. They then went into the field to take measurements of camel-damaged trees including height, trunk diameter, defoliation, number of broken branches, etc. This has resulted in a robust and consistent method for calculating feral camel damage to the landscape and to measure the improvement as their numbers decline.
 

 
Travellers' tales

Travellers and national parks supporters could make an invaluable contribution to monitoring camel numbers and behaviour in the central deserts, says Alan Hancox, president of the Friends of the Simpson Desert Parks volunteer group.

Alan himself has witnessed first-hand the severe impact of feral camels in the Simpson Desert Parks. "Working with adjoining land owners, the department has had an active control program in place for some years that has reduced visible numbers. However, immediately after a cull in 2005 we saw a mob of approximately 100 camels drinking at Purni Bore each night. Enormous damage had been done to shrubs, with red sand turned grey by camel droppings."

"Sightings by travellers depend very much on the season; in wet times the camels disperse, as water is freely available but in dry times they migrate to watering points and are seen in greater numbers. Perhaps that is the true measure of how many there are out there,” he adds.

 Camel citations

Glenn Edwards reports that camel research is currently starring in the rangelands scientific literature. “Thought you might be interested to know that the papers from the camel research program are holding down positions 3, 5, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15 and 19 in the current 20 most read papers in The Rangeland Journal. Obviously that will change in time - but looks pretty good at the moment,” he says.