Return of the Imperial Camel Corps?

[Nick]

With the continued rise in global temperatures and the need for transport across all terrain with minimum maintenance, the MOD looked for alternatives to trucks and horses...




From a climate change exhibit at the Museum of London in 2011. I thought this would appeal to many here! 

[NARSES2]

Well considering the Guards did form a camel troop in the Sudan campaigns that quite apt 

[zenrat]

As the home of the largest dromedary population in the world it's another export possibility for Australia.

Little known fact - it is illegal to breed captive camels in Australia.  If you want to increase your herd you have to go out and catch more wild ones.
Here's Private & Mrs zenrat on patrol on Broome Beach.

[lancer]

Little known fact - it is illegal to breed captive camels in Australia.  If you want to increase your herd you have to go out and catch more wild ones.

That sounds like a loony tunes law...What fool made that one up?? No offence to regular Aussies, but your poloitico's seem to made wierder laws than our bunch of 'elected' morons over here!!

I've always thought it was bloody cool to see Caamels in Aus, but knowing the histroy of them as well it was a damm good idea to utilise them at the time...

[Old Wombat]

Point is; camels aren't native to Australia & they do cause environmental damage & compete with native herbivores in a desert environment where enough to eat can often be marginally more than not enough, &, therefore, the difference between survival & extinction. Although not, perhaps, as much as some of the more commercial species in less marginal regions.

Camels, also, rather like Australian conditions & breed quite successfully & quickly. In some regions camel culls are undertaken every few years just to control their numbers, with no real hope of eradicating them.

So, banning breeding & taking camels from the wild is, actually, one of the very rare very logical decisions taken by Australian governments.

[NARSES2]

So, banning breeding & taking camels from the wild is, actually, one of the very rare very logical decisions taken by Australian governments.

Can see their logic.

Anyone eaten camel meat ? I don't think I have but in some of the places I've been to who really knows what the meat was ? Probably the chef if he was lucky 

[JayBee]

Anyone eaten camel meat ?

Yes actually, it tasted like meat!

I had it at a barbeque which was billed as having the best BBQ chefs in the world.
You collected whichever meat you wanted at the counter and cooked it yourself. I had camel and crocadile, I had already had Roo elsewhere.
This was at the outback Pioneer in Yulara the resort near Ularu (Ayres Rock). They WERE right, the BEST BBQ chefs in the world! 

Jim

[NARSES2]

Right

I've eaten Kangaroo and Ostrich here in the UK and Zebra, Crocodile and Antelope (unknown species) in Kenya. Known of them can beat a good piece of well cooked lamb however 

[lancer]

Point is; camels aren't native to Australia & they do cause environmental damage & compete with native herbivores in a desert environment where enough to eat can often be marginally more than not enough, &, therefore, the difference between survival & extinction. Although not, perhaps, as much as some of the more commercial species in less marginal regions.

Camels, also, rather like Australian conditions & breed quite successfully & quickly. In some regions camel culls are undertaken every few years just to control their numbers, with no real hope of eradicating them.

So, banning breeding & taking camels from the wild is, actually, one of the very rare very logical decisions taken by Australian governments.

Ah, now I understand. Thanks for the clarification

[rickshaw]

Camel is actually pretty bland.  Needs a fairly heavy sauce to impart any sort of flavour in my limited experience.

Over the years I've eaten:

Snake
Goanna
Crocodile
Emu
Kangaroo
Wallaby
Buffalo
Rabbit
Hare
Bush Turkey
Venison

The 'roo and the Wallaby was pretty good, the Emu excellent, the Rabbit and Hare pretty good and the Bush Turkey as tough as old boots (I advise them to hang it for a few days but they were in a hurry to eat it).  The Snake and Goanna tasted like Chicken and the Crocodile like fishy-Chicken (if that is possible).  The Buffalo was like really strong beef.  Of them all, the Venison had the strongest game flavour.

Sadly, most Game and red meat is now off the table because I have been diagnosed with the gene for haemochromatosis.  

Part of the pass for the Australian SAS IET (Initial Employment Training - which is the first course done after passing the selection course) is to catch and tame a wild camel.  I still think Pratchett wrote the best description of camels...

[NARSES2]

I still think Pratchett wrote the best description of camels...

The one in Pyramids ? 

Interesting you've got rabbit on your list of meats. When I was growing up it was a common meat in working class households. Little Johnny's pet often mysteriously disappeared just before Sunday lunch  My granddad had a habit of serving those pigeons that had let him down as a stew 

I like rabbit and pigeon, hare is a bit gamey for me. Lots of the game birds are tasty but can again be very gamey and are a required taste. Venison, very nice but needs to be cooked well. From the wildlife pantry however I think my favourite is duck 

[zenrat]

No horse on your list Rickshaw?
I had it in Paris.  Tasted like beef.

The Pratchett description I remember is in Pyramids.  The camel in question is "the greatest mathematician on the disc".

The description I remember best is "a horse designed by a committee".  It's been ascribed to a variety of sources but they were obviously thinking along the same lines as Robert A Heinlein when he described a committee as a creature with more than six legs and no brain.

[rickshaw]

Yes, Pratchett's description in Pyramids that Camels are the most cantankerous animal in the universe.

Rabbit used to be very common, extremely common and saw many a family through the Great Depression.  They used to, before the introduction of Myxomatosis be in plague proportions downunder.  They attempted a come back in the 1990s and they released the Calicivirus to control them again but it hasn't quite brought their numbers completely down to the days of Mixo.  Hare I've only had once and it was quite a strong taste as I remember it.  My father's recipe was to leave it hanging "and when you wipe the slime off it for the third time, it's ready for cooking."   Something most people nowadays don't understand is the tenderising effect that a little decay has on meat.  Having worked as a butcher in the Army, I was fascinated by what grows in abattoirs on slaughtered meat. 

Never had horse although I understand it tastes rather like Beef, Zenrat from my brother who had it when he visited France in the 1970s.  I know someone who's had Whale.  A friend used to teach English in Japan and she tried it there back in the 1990s.  It also tasted somewhat like strong Beef apparently. 

Goanna and Snake were quite good, although there really wasn't that much meat on them.

[NARSES2]

Had horse in France a few times and in all honesty I can't remember what it tasted like, nothing different that's for sure.

I must have eaten whale meat as a child in the UK during the 50's ? 

As for hanging meat ? All meat should be aged, game especially so. It's that which makes game in particular have a strong taste which is what puts a lot of people off

[rickshaw]

Had horse in France a few times and in all honesty I can't remember what it tasted like, nothing different that's for sure.

I must have eaten whale meat as a child in the UK during the 50's ? 

As for hanging meat ? All meat should be aged, game especially so. It's that which makes game in particular have a strong taste which is what puts a lot of people off

Thing is most western people are too used getting their meat in supermarkets, wrapped in plastic and divorced from the butchering process.  They'd be horrified to realise how old the meat actually was!

I was thinking about this thread.  You don't hear Vegetarians talking about the different flavours vegetables have...