The one-humped camel in Southern Africa: use in Police, Postal Service and Tourism in Botswana, c.1900-2011

Abstract

The one-humped camel has been introduced to many regions outside its natural area of distribution in North Africa, the Near and Middle East, as well as South Asia. Camels were imported into four separate entities in Southern Africa at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentiethcenturies. Colonial Botswana (or Bechuanaland Protectorate) was one of these but obtained camels mainly from the Cape of Good Hope (part of the Union of South Africa from 1910) as the territory was essentially administered from Cape Town. These animals were used by the police for regular patrols in the sandy Kgalagadi Desert and for postal deliveries. The police force continued to use camels on patrols until the 1970s and retained them until 2001. At this time the camels were handed over to local communities with the intention of developing a tourist industry based on camel safaris. Little is known about camel diseases in Botswana but antibodies to bluetongue virus were identified in the 1970s. In the early twenty-first century there are probably just over 200 camels in Botswana. This paper describes in detail the use of camels in police work, postal duties, and as a potential for tourism.