The one-humped camel as a producer of rural and urban energy

This paper briefly reviews the role of camels as sources of energy in rural and urban areas of the developing world. A short section provides information on the numbers of camels, their distribution in the tropics and subtropics and the kind of work they perform. Work performance as draught animals in agricultural and urban environments, as pack and riding animals and as prime movers for industrial applications is described. The effects of work on physiological and biochemical parameters from a wide range of literature sources are presented. Data on nutritional requirements and feeding standards have not been the subject of intensive or detailed research. It is shown that most recommendations are based on feeding standards for other species of work animals or on empirical standards used by colonial military administrations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Harnesses and equipment for camels are similarly most often based on that in use for other species but there are opportunities to design new or adapt existing examples that would increase efficiency and improve animal welfare. The economic importance of camels in local and wider situations is presented in a series of case studies. A final section considers the future of camels as work animals in support of human livelihoods and the research needed to increase their performance.