New Wild Camel Found on Chinese Nuclear Test Site
NAIROBI, Kenya - A new species of camel that has adapted to survive on salt water has been discovered in a remote region of salty sand dunes on the edge of the Tibetan mountains. The wild camels were found in the middle of the inhospitable and dangerous Kum Tagh sand dunes in China's Xinjiang province, north of Tibet.
The discovery was announced Monday at the Governing Council meeting of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) taking place this week in Nairobi.
The area in which they live was used by China for nuclear weapons testing and has been, since 1955, off limits to people, allowing the unique wild camels to survive. Since 1996 when tests were ended, miners and hunters have been sowing land mines around the camels' salty water holes to take them for meat.
Genetic tests on animal remains, collected on expeditions by a Chinese-British team, show significant variation between these newly discovered wild bactrian or two humped camels and their domesticated cousins.
John Hare, the joint expedition leader and founder of the UK based Wild Camel Protection Foundation, said yesterday, "The scientists doing the genetic tests have found a three percent difference in the base pairs between the domesticated and these wild bactrian camels."
"You have to remember that there is only a five percent difference between man and chimpanzees. So these wild camels may be a different species never domesticated by humans," said Hare, who believes fewer than 1,000 of these camels exist.
Hare says the camels do not survive on salt water by choice but because humans hunting them for meat have driven this last remnant of their population into a region where salt water is the only water available for hundreds of thousands of square miles.
The foundation says urgent action is needed to save the animals from poachers. Hare and other members of the foundation are working with the Chinese State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) with funding from UNEP through the Global Environment Facility to establish a reserve to be known as the Arjin Shan Lop Nur Nature Reserve.
Hare said, "The remoteness of the area has helped preserve these camels. The fact that people were not allowed in by the Chinese government has also helped them survive. But with the cessation of nuclear tests, illegal hunters and miners looking for gold and iron ore are moving in. We found land mines put by the salt water springs. So when the camels come to drink they step on them, bang. They are blown to pieces and picked up as meat."
The UNEP Governing Council is dealing with pressing issues such as a shortage of funding, protect ion of vulnerable populations from the impact of climate related natural disasters, and the need to strengthen environmental laws in emerging economies to the impact of globalization on native, indigenous, cultures. Still, the ministers from 100 countries were interested in the newly discovered camels.
Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP, said, "I am delighted that we have been able to play a role in these new wildlife discoveries. We have many responsibilities but these include helping protect the world's animals and plants. The discovery of these camels underlines that the natural world still has many secrets and surprises which enrich our knowledge of the earth and our understanding of nature."
It is estimated, based on surveys and interviews with local herdsmen, that the population of wild camels in China numbers about 600. A further 300 are estimated to be in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. Only 15 known individuals are held in captivity.
The wild bactrian camel is currently ranked as highly endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List but experts think there may be an argument for listing the species as critically endangered, the highest ranking of threat for a species.
Robert Hepworth, a senior biodiversity official in UNEP said, "These wild camels are probably a unique species, and the two range states of China and Mongolia have a unique opportunity to preserve this species for posterity. UNEP, GEF and the world conservation community are already playing their part by supporting protection programs. Yet more needs to be done, for example by increasing the protection available to the species through treaties such as the UNEP Conventions on Biodiversity and Migratory Species."
UNEP, working with the Global Environment Facility, a funding branch of the World Bank Group, has put $750,000 into the establishment of the new reserve and public awareness programs.
Funding for the Chinese reserve has so far led to the setting up of five checkpoints to police people entering the Arjin Shan Lop Nur Wild Camel Reserve.
The Wild Camel Protection Foundation estimates that ten more check points are needed to secure the vast reserve which, despite being 150,000 square kilometers in size or one and a quarter the size of Poland, has only 15 roads or entry points into it. The Xinjiang Provincial Authorities have agreed to fund the running costs of the new reserve including staff wages and petrol for patrol vehicles.
The team conducting the genetic tests on the wild camels are led by professor Han Jianlin, a molecular geneticist from Gansu Agricultural University in China and professor Olivier Hanotte, a molecular geneticist from the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr. Hanotte said Monday, "We may be looking at the ancestor of the domestic camel rather like wolves are the ancestor of dogs."
"The second possibility is that the domestic camel we see today was bred from another species that has disappeared. This would mean that these wild camels found by the expedition in China and the population in Mongolia are a totally separate species," he said.
The scientists believe that it may be possible to cross breed these wild camels with domestic ones to improve their genetic stock and to endow them with the ability to live in harsh environments with only salty water.
• Story originally published by •
Environment News Service - February 6 2001
