Editing Camel (section)

===Military uses===
{{Main|Camel cavalry}}
[[File:BSF-Republic day.jpeg|thumb|A special [[Border Security Force|BSF]] [[Border Security Force Camel Band|camel contingent]], [[Republic Day (India)|Republic Day Parade]], New Delhi (2004)]]
[[File:Camel corps at Magdhaba.jpg|thumb|alt=A painting of soldiers on camels|''[[Bikaner Camel Corps|Camel Corps]] at [[Battle of Magdhaba|Magdhaba]]'', Egypt, 23 December 1916, by [[Harold Septimus Power]] (1925)]]

By at least 1200&nbsp;BC the first camel saddles had appeared, and [[Bactrian camels]] could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500 and 100&nbsp;BC, Bactrian camels came into military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC the military Arabian saddle evolved, which again improved the saddle design slightly.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last= Fagan|editor-first= Brian M|editor-link= Brian M. Fagan|year= 2004|title= The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World|chapter= Transportation|location= London|publisher= Thames & Hudson|pages= [https://archive.org/details/seventygreatinve0000unse/page/150 150–152]|isbn= 978-0-500-05130-6|chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/seventygreatinve0000unse/page/150}}{{Page needed|date= February 2011}}</ref><!--pagenum inserted based not on access, but on toc pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/exlibris/aleph/a20_1/apache_media/ANYEH2GP3D4Q8URFJ1NSG164SB2NAU.pdf--><ref name="Teller_2012">{{cite magazine| last= Baum| first= Doug| date= 1 November 2018| title= The Art of Saddling a Camel| url= http://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/November-2018/The-Art-of-Saddling-A-Camel?page=9| magazine= Saudi Aramco World| access-date= 10 December 2018| archive-date= 10 December 2018| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181210202718/http://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/November-2018/The-Art-of-Saddling-A-Camel?page=9| url-status= dead}}</ref>

Military forces have used [[Camel cavalry|camel cavalries]] in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and their use continues into the modern-day within the [[Border Security Force]] (BSF) of [[India]]. The first documented use of camel cavalries occurred in the [[Battle of Qarqar]] in 853&nbsp;BC.<ref name=gabriel07>{{cite book | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | isbn = 9780313333484 | last = Gabriel | first = Richard A. | title = Soldiers' Lives Through History: The Ancient World | year = 2007 |page= xvi }}</ref><ref name=bhatia12>{{cite news | last = Bhatia | first = Vimal | title = BSF to ditch camels to ride sand scooters | work = The Times of India | access-date = 4 December 2012 | date = 23 July 2012 | url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BSF-to-ditch-camels-to-ride-sand-scooters/articleshow/15099086.cms | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120723172835/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/BSF-to-ditch-camels-to-ride-sand-scooters/articleshow/15099086.cms | archive-date = 23 July 2012 }}</ref><ref name=gann72>{{cite book | publisher = University Press of America | isbn = 9780761815204 | last1 = Gann | first1 = Lewis Henry | first2 = Peter | last2 = Duignan | title = Africa and the World: An Introduction to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa from Antiquity to 1840 | year = 1972 | page = [https://archive.org/details/africaworldintro00gann/page/156 156] | quote = The camel was acclimatized in Egypt long before the time of Christ and was subsequently adopted by the Berbers of the desert, who used camel cavalry to fight the Romans. The Berbers spread the use of the camel across the Sahara. | url = https://archive.org/details/africaworldintro00gann/page/156 }}</ref> Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.<ref name=fleming09>{{cite news | issn = 0161-7370 | volume = 74 | issue = 8 | publisher = Bonnier Corporation | first = Walter L. | last = Fleming | title = Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment | work = The Popular Science Monthly | date = February 1909 | page = 150 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DyADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA150 | quote = Other trials of the camel were made in 1859 by Major D. H. Vinton, who used twenty-four of them in carrying burdens for a surveying party...All in all, he concluded, the camel was much superior to the mule. | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160504180151/https://books.google.com/books?id=DyADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA150 | archive-date = 2016-05-04 }}</ref><ref name=mantz06>{{cite book | publisher = Heritage House Publishing Co | isbn = 9781894384018 | pages = 51–54 | editor-first = Garnet | editor-last = Basque | last = Mantz | first = John | title = Frontier Days in British Columbia | chapter = Camels in the Cariboo | date = 20 April 2006 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fecJGyNKtwoC&pg=PA51 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160624015054/https://books.google.com/books?id=fecJGyNKtwoC&pg=PA51 | archive-date = 24 June 2016 }}</ref>

The [[East Roman Empire]] used [[Auxiliaries (Roman military)|auxiliary]] forces known as ''[[dromedarii]]'', whom the Romans recruited in desert provinces.<ref name=southern07>{{cite book | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 9780195328783 | last = Southern | first = Pat | title = The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History | date = 1 October 2007 | page = [https://archive.org/details/romanarmysociali00sout_0/page/123 123] | url = https://archive.org/details/romanarmysociali00sout_0/page/123 }}</ref><ref name=nicolle91>{{cite book | edition = illustrated, reprint | publisher = Osprey Publishing | isbn = 9781855321663 | volume = 5 | last = Nicolle | first = David | title = The Desert Frontier | series = Rome's Enemies | date = 26 March 1991 |page= 4 |quote= Nevertheless the military prowess of desert peoples impressed the Romans, who recruited large numbers as auxiliary cavalry and archers. In addition to providing the Roman Army with its best archers, the Easterners (largely Arabs but generally known as 'Syrians') served as Rome's most effective ''dromedarii'' or camel-mounted troops.}}</ref> The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close range (horses are afraid of the camels' scent),<ref name=sandiegozoo /> a quality famously employed by the [[Achaemenid]] Persians when fighting [[Lydia]] in the [[Battle of Thymbra]] (547&nbsp;BC).<ref name=potts/><ref name=herodotus>{{cite book | author = Herodotus |date=440 | translator-last1= Rawlinson |translator-first1=George |via=The Internet Classics Archive | title = The History of Herodotus | access-date = 4 December 2012 | url = http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html | quote = He collected together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse; behind them were to follow the foot soldiers, and last of all the cavalry. When his arrangements were complete, he gave his troops orders to slay all the other Lydians who came in their way without mercy, but to spare Croesus and not kill him, even if he should be seized and offer resistance. The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy's horse was because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that animal. By this stratagem he hoped to make Croesus's horse useless to him, the horse being what he chiefly depended on for victory. The two armies then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian war-horses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off; and so it came to pass that all Croesus's hopes withered away. | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121201230133/http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html | archive-date = 1 December 2012 }}</ref><ref name="historygroup-nz">{{cite web | publisher = History Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage | title = Cameliers and camels at war | work = New Zealand History online | access-date = 5 December 2012 | date = 30 August 2009 | url = http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/camel-corps | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120316110701/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/camel-corps | archive-date = 16 March 2012 }}</ref>

====19th and 20th centuries====
[[File:Camels on the way to Catalca, 1912.jpg|thumb|alt= A photo of Bulgarian military-transport camels in 1912|A [[camel train|camel caravan]] of the [[Military of Bulgaria|Bulgarian military]] during the [[First Balkan War]], 1912]]

The [[United States Army]] established the [[U.S. Camel Corps]], stationed in [[California]], in the 19th century.<ref name=sandiegozoo /> One may still see stables at the [[Benicia Arsenal]] in [[Benicia, California]], where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum.<ref name="military-museum">{{cite web | publisher = The California State Military Museum | title = The Posts at Benicia | access-date = 4 December 2012 | url = http://www.militarymuseum.org/Benicia.html | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120928195539/http://www.militarymuseum.org/Benicia.html | archive-date = 28 September 2012 }}</ref> Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success ([[John B. Floyd]], [[Secretary of War]] in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861 saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.<ref name=mantz06 />

France created a ''[[méhariste]]'' camel corps in 1912 as part of the [[Army of Africa (France)|Armée d'Afrique]] in the Sahara<ref name="musee-de-l">{{cite web | publisher = Musée de l'infanterie | title = Vitrine N° 108 (partie droite): LES PELOTONS MEHARISTES | access-date = 5 December 2012 | url = http://www.musee-infanterie.com/vitrine/114-vitrine-n-108-partie-droite--les-pelotons-meharistes | language = fr | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130526202745/http://www.musee-infanterie.com/vitrine/114-vitrine-n-108-partie-droite--les-pelotons-meharistes | archive-date = 26 May 2013 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding [[Tuareg]] and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed.<ref name=brucehall>{{cite book | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 9781107002876 | last = Hall | first = Bruce S. | title = A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600–1960 | url = https://archive.org/details/historyracemusli00hall | url-access = limited | date = 6 June 2011 |page = [https://archive.org/details/historyracemusli00hall/page/n162 143]}}</ref> The [[Free French Camel Corps]] fought during [[World War II]], and camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.<ref name=guillaume12>{{cite news|last= Guillaume |first= Philippe |title= L'incroyable épopée des méharistes français |trans-title=The incredible epic of the French méharistes |newspaper= BDSphère |access-date= 5 December 2012 |date= 16 June 2012 |url= http://www.bdsphere.fr/2012/06/16/lincroyable-epopee-des-meharistes-francais/ |language= fr |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130522103746/http://www.bdsphere.fr/2012/06/16/lincroyable-epopee-des-meharistes-francais/ |archive-date= 22 May 2013 }}</ref>

In 1916, the British created the [[Imperial Camel Corps]]. It was originally used to fight the [[Senussi]], but was later used in the [[Sinai and Palestine Campaign]] in [[World War I]]. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.<ref name="historygroup-nz-pages">{{cite web | publisher = History Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage | title = Cameliers and camels at war | work = New Zealand History online | access-date = 5 December 2012 | date = 30 August 2009 | url = http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/camel-corps | pages = 1, 2, 4, 5 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120316110701/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/camel-corps | archive-date = 16 March 2012 }}</ref>

In World War I, the British Army also created the [[Egyptian Camel Transport Corps]], which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]], Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.<ref name=woodward06 >{{cite book | publisher = University Press of Kentucky | isbn = 9780813123837 | last = Woodward | first = David R. | title = Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East | url = https://archive.org/details/hellholylandworl00wood | url-access = limited | year = 2006 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/hellholylandworl00wood/page/n50 36], 39, 43, 56, 133}}</ref><ref name=murray20>{{cite book | publisher = J.M. Dent | last = Murray | first = Archibald James | title = Sir Archibald Murray's despatches (June 1916 – June 1917) | year = 1920 | url = https://archive.org/details/sirarchibaldmur00murrgoog | page = [https://archive.org/details/sirarchibaldmur00murrgoog/page/n155 123] | quote = A great deal of the work of supplying the troops on both fronts has been done by the Camel Transport Corps }}</ref><ref name=mcgregor06>{{cite book | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | isbn = 9780275986018 | last = McGregor | first = Andrew James | title = A Military History of Modern Egypt: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War | date = 30 May 2006 | page = [https://archive.org/details/militaryhistoryo00andr/page/215 215] | url = https://archive.org/details/militaryhistoryo00andr/page/215 }}</ref>

The [[Somaliland Camel Corps]] was created by colonial authorities in [[British Somaliland]] in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.<ref name=fedresearchdiv04>{{cite book| edition = 3rd| publisher = Kessinger Publishing| isbn = 9781419147999| author = Federal Research Division| title = Somalia a Country Study| series = Area handbook series| date = 30 June 2004 | pages = 230–231}}</ref>

Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during [[World War II]] in the Caucasian region.<ref name="wwii-color">{{cite web|url=http://www.ww2incolor.com/Romanian+Forces/F_32844_l.html|title=Romanian troops using camels|work=WWII in Color|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054749/http://www.ww2incolor.com/Romanian+Forces/F_32844_l.html|archive-date=2013-09-21}}</ref> At the same period the Soviet units operating around [[Astrakhan]] in 1942 adopted local camels as draft animals due to shortage of trucks and horses, and kept them even after moving out of the area. Despite severe losses, some of these camels ended up as far west as to [[Battle of Berlin|Berlin itself]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://warhead.su/2020/03/02/nash-sovetskiy-verblyud-pokaraet|title=Наш советский верблюд покарает!|date=March 2, 2020|website=WARHEAD.SU|access-date=March 4, 2020|archive-date=March 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319171527/https://warhead.su/2020/03/02/nash-sovetskiy-verblyud-pokaraet|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[Bikaner Camel Corps]] of [[British India]] fought alongside the [[British Indian Army]] in World Wars I and II.<ref name=indianetzone>{{cite news <!--cite web--> | last = Jupiter Infomedia Ltd| title = Bikaner Camel Corps, Presidency Armies in British India| work = IndiaNetzone| date = 28 November 2012<!--| access-date = 1 January 2015| url = http://www.indianetzone.com/64/bikaner_camel_corps.htm-->}}{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The ''[[Tropas Nómadas]]'' (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of [[Sahrawi people|Sahrawi]] tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today [[Western Sahara]]). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the ''Tropas Nómadas'' were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.<!--Mainly info from "Tropas Nómadas" Wikipedia page, some info confirmed by the following references--><ref name=shelley07>{{cite journal| last = Shelley| first = Toby| title = Sons of the Clouds| journal = Red Pepper| access-date = 6 December 2012| date = December 2007| url = http://www.redpepper.org.uk/sons-of-the-clouds/| location = Location| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130520202141/http://www.redpepper.org.uk/sons-of-the-clouds/| archive-date = 20 May 2013}}</ref><ref name=hermandad>{{cite web|author=Hermandad de Veteranos Tropas Nómadas del Sáhara |work=Historia: Agrupación de Tropas Nómadas |title=Los Medios |trans-title=The Means |access-date=6 December 2012 |url=http://hermandadtropasnomadas.com/historia2-11.html |language=es |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055249/http://hermandadtropasnomadas.com/historia2-11.html |archive-date=21 September 2013 }}</ref>

====21st century competition====
The annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is held in Saudi Arabia. In addition to camel racing and camel milk tasting, the festival holds a camel "[[beauty pageant]]" with prize money of $57m (£40m). In 2018, 12 camels were disqualified from the beauty contest after their owners were found to have injected them with [[botox]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42802901 |title=Camels banned from Saudi beauty contest over Botox |work=BBC News |date=24 January 2018 |access-date=26 August 2021 }}</ref> In a similar incident in 2021, over 40 camels were disqualified.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Abigail |title=Over 40 Camels Disqualified From Beauty Contest in Saudi Arabia For Receiving Botox Injections |url=https://people.com/pets/over-40-camels-disqualified-from-beauty-contest-for-botox/ |work=PEOPLE.com |date=9 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>