MIDWIFE TO WILD CAMELS

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33033, 28 September 1972, Page 12

MIDWIFE TO WILD CAMELS

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Sept. 27. Being cooped up below decks for days on end may be a bit of a yawn for the 52 female camels on board the Samoa Bear, but it is no holiday for their trainer, Mr R. Chandler, from California.

Mr Chandler collected his charges in Australia and is tending them during the voyage to California, where he will later train and breed from them for zoos and circuses.

Although this is his sixth trip with Australian camels, of the Arabian variety, he is not likely to spend mudh time on the boat deck with his feet up.

“It’s the biggest load I have taken out of Australia, and most of the big females (more than a dozen) are in calf,” he said. Some of them are due to calve at any time. Playing midwife to a domesticated camel may be one thing but it is certainly a harder task with the wild variety. None of the camels on board the Samoa Bear have had any training nor have they been in contact with humans until their capture a few weeks ago. Al! were rounded up tn the Australian outback and are descended from Arabian camels which were introduced to Australia at the turn of the century.