The one-humped camel in Southern Africa: Unusual and new records for seven countries in the Southern African Development Community

Abstract

The one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) was introduced to colonial southern Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for military and police work to maintain law and order, for use in the postal services and for experiments in connection with rinderpest. Remnants of these (originally very small) populations survive in Botswana, Namibia and the Republic of South Africa but there are no surviving camels in Zimbabwe to where they were also introduced. This paper documents unusual and new records of camels in seven southern African countries. In several countries these are the first national introductions and they arrived as result of gifts to Heads of State by the then President of Libya