Watch out, they do more than spit!

So you thought you had a bad day huh? Well until you have been crushed by a sex-crazed camel, you just don’t have room to talk. That’s right, a 60 year old woman rancher in Mitchell, Australia was killed when her 10 month old camel (which her husband had gotten her a few weeks before as a birthday present) apparently mistook the rancher for a female camel and then laid on top of her in what Wildlife experts had later called a “very apparent attempt at sexual behavior.” The woman was crushed to death by the camel’s 430 pounds.

Christopher Hill, a camel expert who was called to the scene to take possession of the camel, said that most young camels, although stubborn, are rarely aggressive. He went on to comment that if they are kept alone, however, things like this are bound to happen as camels apparently have a very strong sex drive.

Now I don’t quite know what to make of the whole situation. I mean of course you feel bad for the woman and her family. But can you imagine being the one to deliver the eulogy at the funeral. How do you honestly get around the fact that she had been mistaken for a CAMEL. How do you tell the grandkids that Grandma was killed by a 400 pound humped beast trying to mate with her? Well, I guess it is good that she did not survive though, for if the camel was successful, the typical gestation period for a camel is 14th months, which I know the woman would not have liked, but the real problem would have come at birth. The typical calf (yes a baby camel is a calf too) weighs 85 pounds and is approx 1 meter tall. Can you imagine at 60 years old trying to give birth to that?? I think not.

I am leaving you today with some oh so helpful information about our wonderful friend the camel:

***There are two types of camels: the Bactrian (or Asian) camel, which has two humps and the Dromedary (or Arabian) camel, has one hump. Dromedaries are the most common in Australia.

***Camels can be milked, but the flavor is an acquired taste. Dairy herds are kept in parts of the Middle East.

***The hump is full of fat, not water. It will shrink if the camel doesn’t eat. Baby camels are born without a hump. They need start eating solids before they’ll develop theirs.

***They have a double row of long curly eye lashes to keep sand and dust out. They also have a third eyelid acts as a windshield wiper, moving from side to side to wipe the sand away.

***In the wild, camels get most of the water they need from the plants they eat, but in captivity they might not get enough. They need 15 to 40 gallons of water each, every day. If they are extremely thirsty they can drink up to 2 gallons of water a minute.