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Nick Payne
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 2626
Location: Canberra, Australia1/15/14 12:59 AM |
When workers rode bicycles (and camels)
Photo from the National Archives - a postal service linesman out repairing telegraph lines in central Australia in 1910. Camels were so well suited to conditions in outback Australia that they were used extensively in the 19th century, and when, with the advent of motor vehicles, they were abandoned to their own devices, they survived so well that there are now more camels here than anywhere else.
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Pat Clancy
Joined: 13 Jan 2004
Posts: 1353
Location: Manchester, CT1/15/14 9:55 AM |
Camels in the US
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps
Considering that the project ended circa 1863, it's amazing that the last sighting of a feral camel was as recent as 1941.
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JohnC
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Glastonbury, Ct1/15/14 12:19 PM |
quote:
they survived so well that there are now more camels here than anywhere else.
Not exactly (at least per Wikipedia). Australia has the largest population of feral camels (around 700,000). But there are millions of domesticated camels in the Middle East.
Pat, near where I come from (Reno), there is a ritual reminder of the attempts to use camels in the West. Virginia City stages a camel (and ostrich) racing festival every September. Weird fun.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19083
Location: PDX1/15/14 1:37 PM |
Cleaning my 9er with the Conti Comforts after a wet ride the other day, pretty sure that was some camel dung on the tires.... The PNW has everything...
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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6890
Location: Maine1/15/14 2:55 PM |
Can I get that job?
That looks fun as hell.
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