Wild Bactrian camel  (Camelus ferus)

Wild Bactrian camels have been heavily hunted for their meat and hide over the centuries (4), and today only a few highly fragmented populations persist (1). These camels continue to be persecuted mainly as they are seen as competition with domestic livestock for the precious water and grazing of the desert (1). Bactrian camels persisted in China even though the Gashun Gobi desert (Lop Nur) was used as a nuclear test site for 45 years (3), today further habitat loss has occurred with the development of a gas pipe-line in the north of the reserve (1) and highly toxic illegal mining (3). Competition with domestic camels and livestock as well as hybridisation with domestic camels poses a further threat to the survival of the unique Bactrian camel (1). The total population is predicted to undergo an 80% reduction over the next three generations, prompting the species to be listed as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) (1).

Areas of the Gobi and Gashun Gobi desert (Lop Nur) where the Bactrian camel remain are protected by the Great Gobi Reserve in Mongolia which was established in 1982, and by the newly established national reserve ‘Lop Nur Wild Camel Reserve’ in China (1) (6). Both governments have agreed to protect this trans-boundary migrating species in an historic move (3). A captive breeding programme based in Mongolia and run by the Wild Camel Protection Foundation is due to begin in 2003 in an effort to safeguard the future of this fascinating animal (3). Recent studies of dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) have revealed an extraordinary immune system and it has been found that camel milk arrests diabetes in humans and has proved to be a substitute for insulin (6).