Australia is home to the world’s largest population of feral camels, with current estimates generally ranging from several hundred thousand to over a million animals roaming the arid interior. The exact count depends on when and how it was measured, because this population has swung dramatically over the past few decades: a minimum of 300,000 in 2001, a peak near one million by 2008, a sharp drop after a government-funded culling program, and a rebound since. The story behind those numbers involves nineteenth-century trade routes, explosive breeding in ideal desert habitat, and an ongoing tug-of-war between ecological damage and practical use.
From a Few Dozen to Hundreds of Thousands
Camels are not native to Australia. Dromedaries (the one-humped species) were imported primarily between 1880 and 1907 to serve as pack animals for inland exploration, construction, and freight hauling across terrain that horses and oxen could not handle.1One Health. Absence of MERS-CoV antibodies in feral camels in Australia: Implications for the pathogen’s origin and spread When railways and motor vehicles eventually replaced camel trains in the early twentieth century, thousands of working camels were released or escaped into the outback. Those animals found Australia’s red-center deserts remarkably hospitable. With no natural predators, abundant browse from hardy desert shrubs, and an ability to go long stretches without water, the feral population grew steadily for decades.
By the 1980s, aerial surveys covering roughly 5.8 million square kilometres of mainland Australia placed the total somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 animals spread across about two million square kilometres of arid rangeland, an average density of roughly one camel per 15 square kilometres.2Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. Australian Camel Racing; Assessing International Competitiveness That might sound sparse, but the population was nowhere near finished growing.
The Doubling Problem
A broad-scale aerial survey conducted across the southern Northern Territory in 2001 counted a minimum of 80,533 feral camels in that region alone. After correcting for the fact that observers inevitably miss some animals visible from the air, the researchers extrapolated a national minimum of 300,000 feral camels across Australia. More striking was the growth rate: the population had been increasing at roughly 10 percent per year since the early 1990s, a pace that doubles the herd about every eight years.3Wildlife Research. Population trend of feral camels in the Northern Territory, Australia
If 300,000 in 2001 sounds like a lot, run that doubling forward. By 2008, the estimated wild herd had climbed to around one million animals.4Elsevier / ScienceDirect (Geoforum). Camel country: Assemblage, belonging and scale in invasive species geographies A million large herbivores wandering the interior of a continent, descended from a few thousand imports a century earlier, made Australia’s feral camel population one of the most dramatic examples of an introduced mammal finding unchecked success in a new environment.
How Anyone Counts Camels in the Outback
Estimating a feral population across two million square kilometres of remote desert is inherently imprecise. The standard method relies on aerial surveys: small aircraft fly at low altitude along transect lines while observers on each side of the plane count every camel they spot in a fixed strip of ground. The early national surveys in the 1980s flew at about 76 metres altitude and around 186 kilometres per hour, with observers scanning 200-metre-wide strips on opposite sides of the aircraft.5Journal of Arid Environments. The distribution and relative abundance of camels in Australia Statistical corrections then scale up what was actually seen to account for the vast area between transect lines.
Even with corrections for “perception bias” (observers missing animals that were technically visible), these surveys do not correct for “availability bias,” which accounts for camels hidden under trees or in ravines that could never be seen from the air.3Wildlife Research. Population trend of feral camels in the Northern Territory, Australia That means every published count is a minimum estimate. The real number at any given time is almost certainly higher than what surveys report, which is part of why figures vary so widely depending on the source.
The Culling Campaign and What Came After
By the time estimates hit the one-million mark, the Australian government launched the Australian Feral Camel Management Project, a large-scale program running from 2009 to 2013. It combined aerial shooting, mustering, and ground-based removal across several states and territories. The program removed an estimated 160,000 or more camels during its active years and brought the population down substantially from its peak. But it did not eliminate the population, and with that 10-percent annual growth rate still built into the herd’s biology, numbers began climbing again once the program wound down.
Post-program estimates have varied. Government agencies and researchers have placed the population anywhere from around 300,000 to well over one million, depending on the year and the assumptions used. The honest answer today is that nobody knows the exact number. The population is large, it is growing, and it is concentrated in the arid zones of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia, and parts of Queensland. If the growth rate documented in the early 2000s has held since the last major culling effort, the herd could well have exceeded pre-cull levels again.
Environmental Damage at Remote Waterholes
The reason the population matters so much comes down to water. In central Australia, permanent and semi-permanent waterholes are rare and ecologically precious. When hundreds or thousands of large animals converge on these sites, the damage is severe. Research on remote waterholes found that sites accessible to camels had significantly lower aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity, fewer species considered sensitive to habitat degradation, and markedly poorer water quality compared to sites camels could not reach. The water at camel-accessible sites was more turbid and chemically altered.6The Rangeland Journal. The impact of feral camels (Camelus dromedarius) on remote waterholes in central Australia
The physical destruction is sometimes dramatic. Camels trample the banks and vegetation surrounding waterholes, foul the water with dung and urine, and in dry periods can drink a waterhole down to mud. These sites often serve as the only reliable water for native animals across vast stretches of desert, so when camels degrade them, the ripple effects spread far beyond the waterhole itself.
How Camels Push Out Native Wildlife
The damage is not limited to water quality. Over a decade of monitoring at central Australian waterholes showed that when camels were present, native birds and dingoes visited those waterholes less frequently than on days camels were absent. The daily activity patterns of birds shifted when camels and dingoes were around, and dingo behavior also changed in response to camel presence. The data pointed to camels acting as the dominant resource user at these sites, effectively outcompeting native species for access to the water they depend on.7Journal of Zoology. The impact of camel visitation on native wildlife at remote waterholes in arid Australia
This matters because arid-zone waterholes function as biodiversity hotspots. They concentrate species from the surrounding landscape into a small area. When a large introduced herbivore monopolizes those sites, it does not just push out one or two species at the water’s edge. It reshapes how an entire community of animals uses the landscape. Birds may shift to less reliable water sources or compress their drinking into short windows, both of which carry survival costs.
The Judas Camel Technique
When camel densities drop low enough that aerial shooting becomes impractical (you cannot shoot what you cannot find from a helicopter), wildlife managers turn to a method borrowed from goat and donkey control programs. The “Judas” technique involves fitting a camel with a satellite or radio collar and releasing it. Because camels are social animals, the collared individual eventually joins a group of uncollared camels. Managers then track the Judas camel’s signal, fly in, and shoot the group it has joined while leaving the collared animal alive to repeat the process.
A study tracking 10 collared Judas camels between 2008 and 2010 found the technique remarkably reliable: on 96 percent of relocations, the Judas animal was found with a group of other camels. The groups averaged about nine animals before shooting and remained about the same size afterward, as the Judas animal would simply find a new group. Genetic analysis of the groups confirmed that the technique works well for mopping up small, scattered pockets of camels at low population densities.8The Journal of Wildlife Management. Genetic relationships within social groups influence the application of the Judas technique: A case study with wild dromedary camels The approach is not a solution for large-scale reduction of a herd numbering in the hundreds of thousands, but it fills an important niche once aerial culling has already knocked numbers down in a given area.
Aboriginal Perspectives on a Complicated Animal
The conversation around feral camels in Australia is not purely ecological. Aboriginal communities across central Australia have lived alongside camels for well over a century, and their relationship with the animals is more nuanced than a simple “invasive species must go” framing. Research conducted through the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre found that Aboriginal people’s views on camels are shaped by culture, history, and shifting context. Some communities see camels as a food source, a culturally integrated part of the landscape, or a practical resource, while also recognizing the damage they cause to water sources and sacred sites.9Ecological Management & Restoration. Incorporating Aboriginal people’s perceptions of introduced animals in resource management: insights from the feral camel project
The study argued that simple categories of “belonging” and “not belonging” miss the reality of how Aboriginal people relate to introduced species. Context matters: camels near a waterhole during drought are a threat; camels as a potential economic resource are an opportunity. Effective management, the researchers concluded, requires incorporating both Aboriginal and Western scientific understandings rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all invasive-species framework. This is a live tension in Australian land management, where Aboriginal landholders control or co-manage vast portions of the arid interior where camels are most concentrated.
Disease Surveillance and the MERS Connection
Dromedary camels in the Middle East and Africa are known reservoir hosts for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a virus that has caused hundreds of human deaths since it was identified in 2012. Australia’s feral camels descend from the same species, which raised an obvious question: could Australia’s massive feral herd harbor MERS-CoV too? A focused surveillance study tested Australian feral camels and found no serological evidence of MERS-CoV whatsoever.1One Health. Absence of MERS-CoV antibodies in feral camels in Australia: Implications for the pathogen’s origin and spread
The result makes sense historically. Australia’s camels were imported before MERS-CoV is thought to have established itself widely in dromedary populations, and the Australian herd has been genetically isolated from Old World camels ever since. There has been essentially no mixing of Australian feral camels with camels from the Middle East or North Africa, so the virus never had a route in. This isolation has implications beyond MERS: Australia’s feral herd represents a large, disease-naive population of dromedaries that differs genetically and immunologically from camels elsewhere. From a veterinary standpoint, that isolation is both a protection and a vulnerability, because the herd would have no natural immunity if an exotic camel pathogen were ever introduced through imported animals.
Camel Racing and Commercial Use
Not everyone in Australia views feral camels purely as a pest. Camel racing has grown into a niche but enthusiastic sporting scene, with events held across regional Australia that draw significant crowds. Early races at Albury in the mid-1990s saw attendance jump from about 3,000 people in 1996 to over 10,000 the following year, and a circuit of races with growing prize money and professional tracks has developed since.2Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. Australian Camel Racing; Assessing International Competitiveness The sport has attracted commercial sponsors and even international interest, with the UAE government supporting the racing circuit as part of cultural outreach.
Beyond racing, there is a small but growing industry around camel milk, camel meat, and camel tourism. Some operators muster feral camels for domestication and sale, including live export to the Middle East, where Australian feral camels are valued partly because of their genetic diversity and disease-free status. Camel dairy farms have appeared in several Australian states, and camel milk has gained a following as a specialty product. None of this comes close to offsetting the ecological costs of a million-strong feral herd, but it does complicate the policy picture. The same animal that degrades waterholes and displaces native wildlife is also someone’s racehorse, someone’s dairy stock, and a draw for outback tourism.
Why the Number Keeps Changing
If you have read different sources quoting wildly different figures for Australia’s camel population, the confusion is understandable. The number genuinely depends on the year, the survey method, and the assumptions about growth rate. The trajectory from documented survey data runs roughly like this: around 150,000 to 200,000 in the mid-1980s, a minimum of 300,000 by 2001, an estimated million by 2008, a significant reduction during the 2009-2013 culling program, and regrowth since then at a rate that could again be approaching pre-cull levels. Each of those figures comes with large uncertainty bands because of how hard it is to count animals spread across an area larger than Western Europe.
What is not in dispute is that Australia hosts by far the largest feral dromedary camel population on Earth, that the population has a demonstrated ability to grow rapidly when left unmanaged, and that the ecological costs of that growth fall disproportionately on arid-zone water sources and the native species that depend on them. Whether the current count sits closer to half a million or back above a million, the management challenge remains the same: a large, mobile, hardy animal that thrives in country too remote and too vast for easy control.