another draft animal

I can’t believe people fall for the moose thing, lol! Look at that rack…how could you get anywhere with that! I do enjoy the photo though. Jennifer

I think the real concern would be getting that collar on…… 😉

Jonny B.

Here’s another unusual draft animal………but these are real.
http://camelphotos.com/camel_harness.html

@Patrick 1661 wrote:

Here’s another unusual draft animal………but these are real.
http://camelphotos.com/camel_harness.html

Pre Civil War & maybe post as well camels were imported to be used as pack / draft animals by the US Army in the desert southwest. I’ve heard that the experiment failed, because it turns out that the sand that they were familiar with was of a different texture than what they were asked to navigate here. I think there were other issues as well, but bottom line is they were turned loose to fend for themselves.

Sometime in the early 20th century some skeletons of an unknown species were unearthed in West Texas. There was much speculation about what they were. After a team from the University of Texas identified them as camels there was further speculation as to how they got there. Somehow or other they came up with the theory that they were looking at the remains of the old Army experiment from 50 or 60 years before. Best I can recall this experiment was initiated when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War.

@Mano 3644 wrote:

i am not sure, for that i ask, is that a joke or is that the truth :confused:

It is a joke.

Pre Civil War & maybe post as well camels were imported to be used as pack / draft animals by the US Army in the desert southwest. I’ve heard that the experiment failed, because it turns out that the sand that they were familiar with was of a different texture than what they were asked to navigate here. I think there were other issues as well, but bottom line is they were turned loose to fend for themselves.

The experiment failed because the camel trainers and handlers never bothered to learn the differences in behavior between camels and horses and mules, or were never provided with the information. They never learned how to tailor their training techniques based on these differences in behavior, and so applied only what they knew; horse and mule training techniques. The camels didn’t respond like they had hoped, because camels think differently. One they were released, they were often shot for sport, or by ignorant people who didn’t know what this strange beast was, so of course they had to kill it. Today, camels are kept in many parts of the country, on all kinds of surfaces. I’ve never heard anyone report that their animals have any problems. I’ve worked with a few on rocky New England soils, and never noticed any problems with them getting around.

I know that it’s not the best idea, from an environmental point of view, but sometimes I think that it would have been neat if they had established feral herds here, like they have in Australia, or like our own mustangs. Can you imagine a BLM camel adoption program?

here are a couple of our animals under saddle and pulling two up