Category: Camel and Nature Connection

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Camel and Nature Connection Camel Confeernce

Recommendations for the first King Abdul Aziz camel conference -Riyadh Kingdome of Saudi Arabia

Camel milk is the most important option hope for the future of camel, food security and nature
Camel milk is the most important option hope for the future of camel, food security and nature

Recommendations and further steps need to be taken – My personal recomendations

My conclusive remarks at the end of my talk as a first speaker of the conference. https://arkbiodiv.com/2021/12/28/photostory-of-the-first-king-abdul-aziz-camel-conference-in-riyadh/

  • Declaring the camel milk as a heritage food: The governments should buy (camel milk) with subsidized rates and can provide to the schools children (heritage/slow food), hospitals (natural health), and police/army personal (stronger security). The countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and other gulf states can easily support such initiatives
  • Channellisation (milk) through cameleers cooperatives: The milk of the camel can assure an additional income for a sustainable camel production. This way the camel milk business will not go in the hands of few giant companies but with the cameleers (the major share).
  • Giving a chance to the female cameleers: The female needs to give a chance in the camel milk business. I have a very scientific module for involving females in camel dairying to enhance their income, promote family wellness and the health of mother and kids
  • Utmost need to support the camel keeper: The camel farmers/beduins need support as they are facing climate change catastrophe, revegetation of the deserts with the help of new technologies can provide feeding opportunities to the camels in future, the native flora revegetation will work as two prong solution – food for livestock and provision shelter to the wildlife
  • The camel helps the drylands: The desert is a living phenomenon and its life is strongle connected with the grazing practice (conversion of woody vegetation into manure), especially the camels. The desert without camels will loose its fertility and the carbon (sunk in rangelands) will be release into the atmosphere which is an irreversable loss to the environment 
  • Formation of a multistakeholders platefarm: ICO can take more active part in coordinating of the multistakeholders platform on camel production, milk, meat etc
  • A conference on camel – once in 2 years: I recomend International Camel Organization (ICO) to arrange a conference (one in 2 years) and ensure the participation of the international camel scientists, production professionals, representatives of the camels organization (from Asia and Africa) to ensure a consistant camel policy at global level
  • Camel mapping as a pilot project – start from KSA and manipulate in other parts of the world. This will help in a wide primary data about the camels, size of herd, male:female, herd composition, milk production, consumption of camel products, prospects of camel keepers etc
  • Knowledge management, we have information about the camels but knowledge is very sporadic. Documentation of the available traditional knowledge with the support of universities as well as translation of the camel science in Arabic will be a great step
Receiving shield from Dr. Mubarak Alsuelem
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Camel and Nature Connection Camel in European Countries

Camel can be a Hope for the Regions under Sever Climate Change Calamities

Dr. Bernard Faye, Camelogist
FAYE, Bernard, famous camelogist. He is a French Veterinarian and global camel researcher.

Camel is one of the best animal models adapted to the harshest climatic conditions of the earth. Camel is engineered with super genes, evolved in tune with the climate change in the hundreds of years evolution history.

Seeing the tragic scenes on TV about the wildfires and the soaring heat in the regions not used to such challenges, the scientists are now thinking of adaptation strategies as the mitigation is complicated, expensive, and unsustainable.

As an animal scientist, working with the camels for the last 20 years, I’m very confident to say that one of the best adaptation strategies would be giving the camel a chance to perform as a food security animal. Though it is not easy and simple it is a reliable and sustainable model to ensure food security under the climate change challenge. Camel can be introduced in the forests (organic nutrients) which can consume the roughages which are otherwise causing hazardous fires. Camel and other animals especially goats can cut the link between the plants on the ground and the shoots of the trees, hence minimizing the risk of wildfires. https://camel4all.info/index.php/2020/09/15/grazing-livestock-can-eliminate-the-fire-hazards-in-the-forests/

Camel with the ability to produce milk and meat in a very low or zero input system can provide amazing food ingredients, especially milk which is attracting thousands of new consumers because of its health-friendly nature. Camel milk is not only good food but helps in health challenges, especially the challenges which are posed because of lifestyle like diabetes.

I have been writing on the camelization of the camels in the new habitats which are different and far away from their original habitats of Asia and Africa. The new habitats like Australia, part of the USA, and Europe are the new habitats and the people over there are witnessed the miraculous attributes of camels under the challenges of climate change. Also, many reports are circulating about the health admiring role of the camel milk as we can read on the very active group wall posts on Facebook with the name of ‘HEALING WITH THE CAMEL MILK’

European scientists are convinced with the attributes of the camel and the renowned camel scientist Dr. bernard Faye is leading a camel milk project with the name of CAMELMILK (PRIMA project n° 1832) to materialize camel milk availability at the European level. There are very promising results coming out of the project. I can see the beautiful pictures of the milking camels and the cheese-making out of the camel milk. https://camel-milk.org/about-us/summary/

In Europe, the camels are mainly housed in 3 countries, i.e. Germany, France, and Spain. Clearer information is only available for the Canary Island with at least 1,300 camels (the data is a bit controversial and maybe more than these figures). The average per camel milk yield (3 to 4 kg/day) is lower than in Africa, Arabia, and Central and South Asia. The prices of camel milk range from 8 to 10 Euro per kg camel milk. People are taking interest in camel milk and the consumers are increasing with a speedy incline curve. The main reasons for the camel milk likeness in Europe are;

  • People with allergies prefer camel milk as the camel milk is free of cow allergy proteins and intolerant lactose.
  • The health conscious people, especially the new generation
  • The people looking for the pharmacological affects of the camel milk and consider camel milk as natural pharmacy
  • The people who prioritize environment friendly production system

Challenges and the Way Forward

One of the most important challenges for the camel keepers in the new habitats is the lower yield of milk. The ancestors of those camels were imported into the regions for work. They are massive animals and comparatively low yielders in milk. In some regions, especially Europe they are somehow crossbred with the Bactrian camels which are very low yielder but producing thicker milk than the Arabian camels.

It will be a wise suggestion to make a camel dairy consortium at a global level with the support of the relevant countries’ governments to centralize the best camel genes for more and sustainable milk production. It is a bit tricky but not impossible. This will be a milestone in the journey of the camel dairying which will put longer impacts on the food systems and environments in the regions.

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Camel and Nature Connection

Camel Vocabulary

Dr. Raziq with the Dairy Camels

Camel is the backbone of the Arabic and other Pastoralists’ communities’ culture and literature. The Arabs have a very rich vocabulary of the camel, a single camel has many names depending upon the sex, age, color, breed, physical status, beauty, gait, foot, shoulder, head, ear, eyes, hair, neck, and so on. https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/the-art-of-naming-your-camel-1.651786

A Gabbara camel

Arab loves their Camels and Using a wide Vocabulary

Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, a great eighteenth-century Orientalist, collected 5,774 words for camel and camel-related features and paraphernalia. Many of the terms he collected were poetical metaphors.17 But, for example, there really are at least thirty different words for camel milk.

The Love needs more Words to Express

As a personal note, I have an experience that the thing you love the most, you call that with many and different names. There are many names for the loved one, the kids and the animals, etc. It reveals that the camel keepers love their camel/s and they prioritize camels among the animals and even the family members.

There are 11 words for ‘love’ in Arabic, with each conveying a different stage in a relationship or the falling in love process. These words include ‘Hawa’ which is the initial attraction towards or turning towards and ‘Hayam which is blind love and the complete loss of reason. The most common words for love are ‘Hubb’ which means ‘seed’ and ‘Qalb’ which means ‘heart.’

Arabic has over 100 words for ‘camel’ which at one point had as many as 1,000 words. ‘Al-Jafool,’ for example is a camel that is frightened by anything and ‘al-harib’ is a female camel that walks ahead of the other camels. https://www.arabacademy.com/surprising-facts-arabic-language/

A Camel Scientist’s View about Camel Terminology

In the field of camel husbandry, camel terminology is mainly derived from a cow/cattle production system in English, which is a wrong approach. I’m giving you food for thought to reconsider and re-establish camel’s terminology.

 As the camel was domesticated, evolved, and managed for centuries in Arabian Peninsula, the best terminology will be the one used in Arabian Peninsula. For more details, please click the link https://arkbiodiv.com/2015/06/15/camel-terminology-needs-to-re-establish/

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Camel and Nature Connection

CaM Antibodies Can Help in Shark Conservation

Some 4 years before when I wrote this sentence ‘The camel milk (CaM) can help in shark conservation’, many critics jumped to me shouting with how how how.

Image for post

Here is the link to my general article at that time where I wrote ‘ Camel milk is a unique and incredible creature of God. Not only food but a gift of nature for natural health and beauty. This hidden treasure (camel milk) is now attracting the attention of millions of people around the world because of many reasons. The camel milk is finding its way in a world where the camel is not found naturally. Last June, on the eve of world camel day (22 June 2014) Japan’s TV channel NHK interviewed me on this important treasure. They showed interest in camel milk as; Japanese are very health sensitive. In Japan health-conscious people use Shark fins for natural and good health as (they think) Nanobodies (NB) found in Shark fins are health promising. This is the reason that Shark prices are very high in Japan. Recent studies revealed that such NB is found in camel milk far richer than the Shark fins. A famous chef name Chinn (protecting Shark) even claimed “Shark’s fin soup has no taste! You take fins off a shark and you don’t really get anything. There’s no value except what you’re paying for.” Camel milk can be a good source of NB and a reasonable replacement to the Shark fins. https://medium.com/@raziqarkbiodiversity/hidden-treasure-the-camel-milk-613cf3b695d0

Today, while reviewing some literature I came to scientific work titled ‘Mini-antibodies discovered in sharks and camels could lead to drugs for cancer and other diseases“, published in 2018. Even a scientist working on a llama (small camel) nanobody was key to structure work that won a recent Nobel Prize.https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/mini-antibodies-discovered-sharks-and-camels-could-lead-drugs-cancer-and-other-diseases

The heavy chain small size antibodies found in camel blood and milk both. These antibodies are several times smaller than those produced by other animals including humans. Dubbed ‘nanobodies,’ they can enter tissues and cells that other antibodies cannot.

The CaM antibodies will open the door for a future’s advanced biomolecular pharmacy to treat all sorts of complicated diseases ranging from resistant bugs to the caners and viral infections to diabetes.

My Philosophy

My philosophy Nature is the Solution’ is coming true and the camel is the flag bearer of this philosophy.

  1. https://medium.com/@DrRaziqKakar/philosophy-behind-the-natural-pharmacy-camels4life-natural-health-with-the-camel-milk-on-cd360c9ffc42
  2. https://camel4all.info/
  3. https://camel4milk.wordpress.com/tag/philosophy-of-symbiosis/

The philosophy always emerges first and then a hypothesis is established and later on research is conducted. My philosophy and assumptions are coming true through the researches conducted with valid scientific methods.

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Camel and Nature Connection Camel Breed Camel in Middle East and Africa Climate Change Adaptation

The Secret Power is in the Camels’ Genes

Dr. Raziq with the Dairy Camels

The drive behind the camel domestication was a set of goals to achieve through this incredible animal, the camel; an animal that can produce food in a challenging scenario. These challenges were comprised of bad weathering, scarcity of food & water, and long traveling for different purposes.

Camels relying on the driedout bushes in the desert. Photo credit Haris Kakar

The wise cameleers selected the incredible camel to achieve this set of tasks to ensure food security and livelihood in the world’s driest landscapes. The secrets of the potential both as qualitative and quantitive traits are treasured in their genes. The camel can play a very multi-dimensional role for the betterment of the human being and Mother Earth. Camel4life international is an advocacy forum promoting camel at the global level to convince the policymakers and other stakeholders to use the camels as an agent for development and food security. https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/science/effect-of-camel-milk-against-cancer-tested-in-regional-study-1.874484

Some days before I and Dr. Ulri were interviewed by Daniel Bardsley and published in the National Newspaper of the UAE. Here is the link to the interview in the following. https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/environment/it-s-in-their-genes-saudi-study-seeks-to-analyse-how-camels-cope-with-extreme-temperatures-1.1140431

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Camel and Nature Connection Camel and water Camel Farm & Milk Production Ecosystem Management General about camel Gut health The Camel Science

Camel Ensures Food Security under the Climate Change

Camel ensures food security in climate change scenario, why? Because;

  • Camel is the most efficient animal in water economy, as camel consumes 8-10 times less water than the dairy cow in the same environment to produce 1 kg of milk
  • Camel has unique gut flora (microbiome), very diverse and as efficient as the termite’s microflora, can digest the hardiest and toughest dry matter, the camel can convert wood into energy
  • Camel is protein efficient as camel recycles blood urea and fulfill some of the protein requirement its recycling mechanism
  • Camel has very minute or zero-emission because of its efficient digestive system which digests feedstuffs in a way that produce very little methane
  • The high temperature cannot depress the milk yield of the camel, ironically the camel lactation curve incline in the harsh summer days
  • Camel does not need any cooling inputs, they can tolerate the skin burning heat waves of the desert, otherwise, in the same environment the dairy cattle need artificial cooling systems which consume energy and water
Camel is the most visible player of the desert

What do the Camels need from us?

The camels and the camels’ keepers need our support at the policy level. The camel must be considered as an important player while making policies about the deserts, climate change, food security, pastoralism, energy, emissions, dairy, meat, rural development, poverty reduction, and other related aspects. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141117111944-85443832-camel-a-solution-to-the-difficult-questions-of-future

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Camel and Nature Connection Camel Milk for Health

Do they not look at the Camels?

Camel milk is a magical food
Author with camel milk in Cholistan

How Are the Camels Made?

In the holy Quran, it is said “Do they not look at the Camels, how they are made? And at the Sky, how it is raised high? And at the Mountains, how they are fixed firm? And at the Earth, how it is spread out? In these honored verses, Allah (Praise & Glory be to him) surpassed the camel upon all other living creatures and made the contemplation of how it was mentioned prior to raising high the sky, fixing firm mountains, and spreading out the earth. In this honored verse, the Creator, who knows the secrets of his creatures, advises people to think and contemplate in creating camels as a creature witnesses Allah’s glory, power, and planning.

Majaheem camels in Al Ula Saudi Arabia.

The Camel Knows all the 100 Names

The Arabs believe that only the camels know the one-hundred name of God, which means that the human being knows 99 names of Allah, and the 100th name is only known by camel. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) delivered his last sermon, which is considered the Charter of Humanity while sitting on a camel called Qiswah. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will be sitting on a camel while entering Jannah and Hazrat Bilal (RTA) will have the Mahar of the camel, leading camel to Jannah.

Autho love the camel milk

Conclusion

In short, the camel is unique, special, and incredible. There is a wide room in the camels’ field to explore and use its uniqueness for the well-being of health, nature, and environment.

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Camel and Nature Connection Camel and water Camel in Middle East and Africa General about camel

Water Footprint of the Incredible Camel

Camels in the beautiful desert
The camels love to stay in groups

Why African Pastoralists are replacing cows with the camels?

Northern Kenya is the paradise of camels as well as other livestock species. The landscape of the region is home to the traditional livestock keepers, we call them pastoralists or nomads. The concurrent droughts and climate change calamities forced the traditional livestock keepers to replace the cattle pastoralism with the camel one because of its hardiness and water economy. Map of the region

A comparison of Indigenous cow vs camel in water economy

I hereby share the results of a study in the region, which will help you in understanding the water economy of the camel and other livestock. The camel almost drinks 1/3rd of the volume of water consumed by the local nomadic cow in the same environment and production system (dry season). The water economy is important and relevant in the dry season.

Camel is the animal of challenges

Dr. Raziq

a. Dry Season

To be even more exact in N Kenya pastoral systems the water intake in ml/kg (live body weight) per day in dry seasons is 25.4 ml/kg/day for camels; 70.75 ml/kg/day for cattle and 76 ml/kg/day for goats. It means a camel with a live body weight of 500, consumes a volume of 12.7 litre of water per day.

b. Wet Season

In wet seasons it is 3.37 ml/kg/day for camels and 24.69 for goats. The cattle were not recorded in wet. Figures for reference are taken from Field, 1983. Bear in mind that camels only lactate once in 2 years and cattle every year and goats 1.5× per year but even then camels use less water.

The camels are not only hardy to dry and harsh climatic conditions also the most effecient animal in water economy.

Reference

Challenges of camel production in Samburu District, Kenya Challenges of camel production in Samburu District, Kenya

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Camel and Nature Connection General about camel

The Camel Photostory. Fiber Digestion

Camels eating dry wood in the desert, Sharjah UAE
Camel is really a unique and incredible player of the worlds' driest and arid ecosystems

Camel has an uncounted number of characteristics, making it a very unique creature. Hardiness is one of the most important special traits of the camel. Camel can thrive on anything when good quality feed is not available, even can consume the bark of the bushes even the woody part.

Camel consumes everything in hardy conditions but chooses the fresh leafy part of the plants in good conditions

Dr. Raziq
The camels are consuming the dried out woody part of a Halloxylon plant in the Sharjah emirate of the UAE.

The picture below was shot in Sharjah emirate by a powerful SLR camera by my son Haris Beryalie. We can see the camel eating the dried out bush, only the dry wood is remaining. Camel pseudo-rumen is highly enriched with extremely diverse micro-organisms the same as the termites have in their stomach. Such specialized microorganisms digest the woody parts of the plants and produce volatile fatty acids for the energy.

Look how the termites have consumed the dry wood branch of the Calitropis bush? Some termites can be seen. 
Camel has a wide choice of plants selection. Very few are poisonous for camel and the wise camel always hesitate to eat.

https://camel4all.blog/2014/07/02/inimitable-features-of-camel-answer-to-complicated-questions-of-future/amp/

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Camel and Nature Connection

Camel Photography. The Milk Line Majaheem

Camel is not only ensuring livelihood and accessibility in the challenging conditions like in the desert but also provides calmness and beauty to the mind and eyes.

The beautiful Majaheem camels in Alain. The Majaheem is one of the best dairy camels

This picture was short in the beautiful golden desert of the Alain, UAE. Alain is actually the land where you can fell the diversity in everything. You can find beautiful dates garden just in the centre of the desert. Alain is rightly called as Oasis.

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Camel and Nature Connection

The Camel Photostory. Camels and the Trees

The nature has a healing power
The Nature Connections

The camel is unique and survives in unique but challenging conditions. Their habitat is composed of sand, resilient vegetation, soaring heat, desert storms, sporadic rains, long sunny days, and little or no water. In spite of such challenging conditions, we expect camel to secure our food supply and ensure our livelihood. One can feel the connection between nature and life in the photograph.

The nature has a healing power
The Nature Connections

This picture was shot on the year’s longest day of June 21, 2020 (Alain, UAE) to highlight the importance of the camel in challenging temperatures. The camel keeper can be seen sitting under the Prosopis tree and the camels, trees, and the sand make together a piece of music played by the wind of the desert.

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Camel and Nature Connection Camel in Australia Camel Milk and Natural Health

Camel milk can make Fortune for South Australia

The camel milk is finding its way in the new world  (from sand dunes of Arabia to the western world) because of its hidden treasures of health promising ingredients.

Traditionally used for complex and diverse diseases in its habitat, camel milk is now praising in the Western world both by modern families and the Scientists. New small and medium enterprises in the USA (Oasis Camel Dairy) and EU (Holland) with the production of camel milk are emerging. The demand is very high and the owners (personal communication) received emails and phone calls from different places to ensure availability of this precious milk for their kids with Autism.

The idea of camel milk as a tool for great health, business, and livelihood is appealing. Now the people are hearing. I hope/wish the policymakers in the camel world will realize the reality. I hereby copy the link of another Autism work in the below lines.

A beautiful Naqa with her calf enjoying the happiness of the nature

New and innovative ideas are being initiated and many new people are willing to come in the camel world. Here, I link the readers with the camel development in South Australia by Hannah Purs.

SOUTH Australia can expect a new industry to emerge in the next few months with preparations underway for SA’s first commercial camel dairy. Port Broughton couple Evan Casey and Hannah Purss say they have spent years setting up their enterprise and are waiting for their herd of 20 female camels – known as cows – to give birth. Ms. Purss said the original drive behind the dairy idea was to remind people of the value of the species. “We’ve worked with camels for a number of years up in the NT, doing a lot of wild camel work,” she said. “There was a lot of money being spent by the government to cull camels. We were looking at ways they can be seen as more important.” They realized a dairy would be a good option and began research into the product.

The link is given below for further reading; https://www.stockjournal.com.au/story/3367478/camel-milk-potential-for-sa/

The beautiful white camels of Suleiman Mountainous Region of Balochistan Pakistan.