Only about a thousand of today’s Endangered All-Star, the Wild Bactrian Camel, are left in the wild. Critically endangered by hunting—for meat and skins—the ancestor of all domesticated camels has also lost much of its habitat to toxic mining, gas-line development, and other misappropriations of the land. Much of its former range in the Gobi Desert was used as a nuclear test site.
The Wild Camel Protection Foundation works in China and Mongolia to protect habitat, monitor populations, organize captive-breeding programs, and manage the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve, set aside in 2001. At their website, you can adopt a camel, donate money to buy hay for the captive herd, or buy uniquely eco-friendly hats, gloves, sweaters, and scarves—made of shed camel fur—knit by the wife of a herdsman who works for the Foundation, Tsog Erdene. Fantastically woolly & gorgeous!
Loading…}