Wild Camel Protection Foundation About us

The Wild Camel Protection Foundation, a United Kingdom registered charity, with Jane Goodall as its Hon. Life Patron, was established in 1997. It is also registered in the USA as a non-profit organisation. The sole aim of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation is to protect the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus ferus) and its habitat in the fragile and unique desert ecosystems in the Gobi and Gashun Gobi deserts in north West China and South West Mongolia. It is the only charitable environmental Foundation in the world which exclusively has as its aims and objectives to protect the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel and its unique desert habitat.

Since it was established, the Foundation has raised funds from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and over $200.000 from international organisations, private foundations, individuals, companies and very supportive and dedicated Wild Camel Protection Foundation members.

The Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF) works tirelessly to obtain financial support from international organisations, individuals and companies. It is continuously fundraising and organising activities to raise the much needed funds to continue this vital work.

The Wild Camel Protection Foundation is the sole international consultant for the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve in China.

Wild Bactrian Camels (Camelus bactrianus ferus)

Now Critically Endangered - Will it survive?

The wild Bactrian camel, the remarkable ancestor of all domestic camels lives in three separated habitats in China and one in Mongolia. The wild Bactrian camel has been listed bu the IUCN in 2002 as critically endangered after years of pressure from the Wild Camel Protection Foundation. There are approximately 600 surviving in China and 350 in Mongolia making them rarer and more endangered than the giant panda. Their numbers are decreasing each year. The majority of these shy animals live in the parched Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur) desert in the south eastern area of the Mongolian. The wild Bactrian camel is a migrating species and moves across the Chinese Mongolian border.

Co-operation

At an International Camel Conference in Beijing in 2000, hosted by the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, there was an agreement between the Deputy Minister from the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment (MNE) and the Vice Minister of the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) China to co-operate to protect this trans-boundary migrating animal. A Letter of Intent whereby both countries agreed to co-operate over the protection of the wild Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus ferus) and its fragile desert ecosystem was signed.

This Letter of Intent is the first China/Mongolian agreement which involves sensitive border areas. It was also agreed that a joint data base would be established; scientific information exchanged, and scientists would work on joint country desert ecosystem and biodiversity projects; the training programme for the Nature Reserve staff would involve both countries; and an environmental education awareness participation programme would be implemented.

The offices of the Convention of Migrating Species (CMS) have fully supported the work of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF) to educate people in China and Mongolia on the importance of protecting the wild Bactrian camel.

EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY

The wild Bactrian camel has a special place in evolutionary history. The wild Bactrian camels in China and Mongolia are the remnants of herds which crossed from North America on the Bering Strait land bridge 3 - 4 million years ago. Some Bactrian camels were domesticated 4.000 years ago, but the wild Bactrian camels in the Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur) area, avoided domestication and are now genetically different from the domestic Bactrian camels. Moreover, research has shown that in the embryonic stage, one-humped, dromedary camels have a small second hump that does not develop further. This suggests that the ancestors of all camels on earth looked like the wild Bactrian camels today.

FIRST PHASE

The WCPF is currently working in China with the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) and the Ministry of Nature and the Environment (MNE), Mongolia, to try and protect the wild Bactrian camel in the wild.

The first phase of the work in China, was the establishment of the Arjin Shan Lop Nur Nature Reserve. WCPF has, with the full support of the Chinese government both at national and provincial levels, assisted in the establishment of the new Arjin Shan Lop Nur Nature Reserve, an area of 65,000 sq kms in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.

However, it is not the total answer to protecting this unique animal. Five checkpoints have now been constructed, but much more work urgently needs to be done. More checkpoints are required and additional equipment for the Nature Reserve staff if they are effectively to manage this new Nature Reserve and ensure it is sustainable. In addition there is the development of the Scientific Programme, coordinating resources and scientists in both China and Mongolia which will be important for the survival of the wild Bactrian camel, but could also have important implications for human survival and cancer research.

SECOND NATURE RESERVE

WCPF is already in discussions with SEPA and the Gansu Province Environmental Protection Bureau (GEPB) to establish another Nature Reserve in the north of the Gansu Province in an area contiguous with the Mongolian Great Gobi reserve 'A'. The wild Bactrian camels in this protected area in Mongolia migrate across the international border into China and less than half return. They are either hunted or die from eating vegetation poisoned by potassium cyanide, one of the by-products of illegal gold mining. The concern of the WCPF is that even with two Nature reserves in Chin, the economic pressure on land from economic development is now pressing and the long term survival of the wild Bactrian camel is uncertain.

There are only fifteen wild Bactrian camels in total in captivity in the world - all of them in China and Mongolia. With so few captive animals the whole species could be wiped out if their natural habitats in China and Mongolia are destroyed. It is therefore important to breed enough animals in captivity to insure against this possible disaster. As each female camel can have young at most once every two years, relying on natural methods would permit the numbers to rise very slowly. With the Przewalski horse (Equus przewalski), the Asian wild horse, died out in the wild in 1969, there were hundreds of captive horses in zoos around the world. This is not the case with the wild Bactrian camel. This is why the WCPF, after much thought and careful consultation with scientists has decided that a captive wild Bactrian camel breeding programme is vital.

CAPTIVE WILD BACTRIAN CAMEL -
BREEDING PROGRAMME

The WCPF does not want to operate a captive wild Bactrian camel breeding programme other than in a country where the wild Bactrian camel still exists in the wild. Mongolia has some of the last herds of genetically pure Bactrian camels, and also suitable areas which could be used to enable such programmes to be established. Using a process called 'embryo transfer' which is similar to human IVF techniques, the plan is to increase the numbers of wild Bactrian offspring each year by using surrogate domestic Bactrian camels to carry the embryos of the wild Bactrian camel.

For the wild Bactrian camel, an animal not yet fully studied or understood by scientists, the proposed programme provides a unique opportunity to ensure its survival into the future. The wild Bactrian camel might, in its turn, yield secrets which enables man to survive on a planet where fresh water supplies are decreasing rapidly.

SCIENTIFIC REPORT

SALTWATER

The wild Bactrian camel has adapted and managed to survive in an area of China, the Gashun Gobi which was for 45 years, a nuclear tests site. In spite of this, the wild Bactrian camel survived the effects of radiation and appeared to be breeding naturally. In some areas in the absence of fresh water it had also to adapt to drinking salt water slush. Domestic Bactrian camels will not drink salt water. Scientists are interested in undertaking studies to determine how the wild camel is adapting to these unique conditions. Research to date does not show conclusively how the wild Bactrian camel is absorbing the salt water, using the water and secreting the salt-water. In China the young camels after the first two years can adapt to drinking salt-water. They are the only mammals able to do so, and it is this adaptability which enables them to survive in the Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur). Even so, the camels must migrate over huge distances in pursuit of unreliable salt water sources and meagre grazing. Being stockier and with longer, darker hair than their single humped cousins, who can not tolerate the salt water, the wild Bactrian camels are better suited to withstand extreme cold.

GENE POOL

The gene pool of these wild Bactrian camels because of the isolation and lack of interbreeding with domestic Bactrian camel, has a much greater diversity and a wider range of adaptability and capacity for random mutations. This gene pool with its unique diversity contains rich source materials for a number of scientific studies.

DNA TESTING

Samples of skin taken from the remains of dead Bactrian camels have been sent to scientists for genetic DNA testing. The results have been remarkable. Each skin sample has shown two or three distinct genetic differences to the domestic Bactrian camel and a 3% base difference. This answers the charge that the wild camel is a domestic runaway. The wild camels in the Gashun Gobi are the only herds which are completely isolated from domestic Bactrian camels. This lack of an opportunity to hybridise is what makes their survival so vital.