Camels

Ezry Keydar and Nadav Ben Israel, two Israeli filmmakers, began making a documentary last year about a Bedouin man's dream of restoring camel races and cultural pride. But even before the film has been finished, his dream has become theirs. Camel racing in Israel may sound outlandish, but there's a serious point. Keydar says Israel is systematically pushing camels — a symbol of Bedouin culture — into extinction. Keydar lives in the desert, respects its harsh ways and wants Bedouins and camels to stay part of Israel's natural and cultural landscape.

Considering that early camels once roamed the area of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, it should come as little surprise that another ancestor of today's "ship of the desert" made its home in Canada's High Arctic. After all, camels originated in North America more than 45 million years ago and migrated to Eurasia over the Bearing land bridge, according to scientists. The droopy-faced beasts were no strangers to higher latitudes. But what has come as a surprise is the method Canadian and English scientists used to identify an assortment of small fossilized bone fragments on Ellesmere Island in the Nunavut territory.

India's annual cattle and camel fair provides a chance to see an extraordinary gathering of animals -- and soak up a little culture too. Thousands from throughout the country come to the annual trade event to race and sell about 50,000 camels. The fair features music, dancing and other traditional festivities. A 16-day custom tour called the Colors of Rajasthan can be scheduled during the Pushkar camel fair (Nov. 20-28 this year) or other times of the year. The itinerary includes ancient kingdom hot spots such as Jodphur, the Blue City at Mehrangarh Fort and Udaipur on Lake Pichola.

Taking a page out of the public relations playbook that wacky publicity is better than no publicity at all, Jason Andreozzi took his act to the streets -- and landed himself a traffic ticket by Park City, Utah, police. The director had failed to land a film he'd made in the competition at the annual Sundance Film Festival. He wasn't invited to the film party -- so he decided to crash the gates anyway. With a camel. FULL COVERAGE: Sundance Film Festival 2013 Police cited Andreozzi for allegedly riding the camel and obstructing traffic while riding atop the hump-backed animal as attendees packed the streets of the picturesque Utah mountain town.

Camels are familiar animals in Saudi Arabia but are afforded CERTAIN PRIVILEGES as the only beast of burden that can live in the desert. Every few miles along the Riyadh road, for example, is an interchange with entrance and exit ramps and a bridge over the highway. But the ramps, with signs reading "Desert Access" and "Beware of Camels," lead nowhere but into the sand dunes. The bridges have been built for the safe crossing of camels and their herders.

Having just returned from a 25-day adventure in India and Nepal, I was shocked when I read "Taken for a Ride" (Nov. 23). Not only were Lori Mayfield's experiences the opposite of my own, but her observations were so off the mark that I wonder who was being taken for a ride. My husband and I also rode camels for sunset views of the sand dunes in the Great Thar Desert outside of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. We had a marvelous time, and the experience was far better than we had anticipated. Why did Mayfield fail to notice the carnival atmosphere as hundreds of tourists were at the sand dunes, riding camels and caravaning on the ridges as far as the eye can see?

A camel was apparently killed by lightning that struck a tree in its enclosure at a zoo, officials said. A Metrozoo keeper found Malaka, a one-hump camel, dead Friday after a rainstorm. An assistant curator said the camel probably was trying to hide from the rain and stood under the pine tree that was hit.

Eight Afghans who ate meat from an infected camel as part of a religious celebration died of what health experts suspect is a rare case of naturally occurring anthrax, officials said. Two women and an infant were among those who died in the southwestern province of Nimruz, said Dr. Abdullah Fahim, an advisor to Afghanistan's health minister. Ten others fell ill.

Hunters stalked giant camels as tall as some modern-day elephants in the Syrian desert tens of thousands of years ago, archeologists reported this week. The enormous beasts existed about 100,000 years ago. Their bones, first discovered last year, have also been found this year in the sands about 150 miles north of the capital, Damascus.

Pascha, a 12-year-old male camel that killed a keeper at a zoo in this Frankfurt suburb, was put to death Friday, police said. A spokesman said that Edmund Sauer, 32, employed by the private Opel Zoo, bled to death Thursday after the camel attacked him, biting his shoulder and severing an artery. Sauer had entered the enclosure to collect two female camels used to give children rides. Pascha was in an aggressive mood because one of his mates gave birth 10 days ago, zoo authorities said.

PARK CITY, Utah - Come to the Sundance Film Festival and there's a good chance you may never make it into a theater, because there's plenty of drama to keep one entertained elsewhere, most of it along this mountain town's Main Street. A camel strutted up the thoroughfare Friday, joining the usual caravan of black Cadillac Escalades that ferry celebrities to and fro. The dromedary was part of a publicity stunt for a movie that wasn't even playing in the festival, and police promptly showed up to move the ship of the desert off the main drag.

India's annual cattle and camel fair provides a chance to see an extraordinary gathering of animals -- and soak up a little culture too. Thousands from throughout the country come to the annual trade event to race and sell about 50,000 camels. The fair features music, dancing and other traditional festivities. A 16-day custom tour called the Colors of Rajasthan can be scheduled during the Pushkar camel fair (Nov. 20-28 this year) or other times of the year. The itinerary includes ancient kingdom hot spots such as Jodphur, the Blue City at Mehrangarh Fort and Udaipur on Lake Pichola.

WESTERN ARIZONA London Bridge, Lake Havasu. If the Grand Canyon is the granddaddy of Arizona attractions, London Bridge is the prince. The span, which traces its royal roots to 1831 England, was purchased in 1971 for $2.4 million, but shipping was more than $4 million. A look at this blocky bridge is unaffecting, but when you walk it, you have to wonder in whose footsteps you're following -- Charles Dickens? Jack the Ripper? (928) 855-5655, www.golakehavasu.com CH Castle Dome Mines Museum.

Inspired by friends' photos, Randy Berler and his wife traveled to Morocco in May to experience the country firsthand. Captivated by the desert bathed in the day's receding light, he snapped this photo while on a camel trek to the dunes of Erg Chebbi. "The early evening sun made for spectacular colors," the Torrance resident said. Berler used a Canon EOS 50D. View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.

Thousands of supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attacked anti-government forces in Cairo's main square Wednesday, some charging in on camels and horses in a dramatic escalation of violence that prompted an official order to clear the area. After days of raucous but peaceful demonstrations that had resembled a giant block party, pro-Mubarak forces pushed their way into the square from side streets, wielding clubs and horse whips against cordons of protesters. The crowd of anti-government demonstrators, sparse compared to their numbers in previous days, hurled stones and chunks of concrete.

At the grand opening of Eden on Friday night, Tony Daly and David Judaken's new celebrity-magnet club, it was hard to say what was attracting the most attention. The tragically estranged Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in one corner, stealing a kiss? Paris Hilton, the patron saint of Hollywood, in black and blond? Or was it another creature with long legs and curly eyelashes? The owners are betting on the tall, tan ungulate, which made its debut around 1:45 a.m. "I never knew so many people were camel fans," Judaken said.

One of the National Zoo's two camels has been euthanized because of concerns that the animal's quality of life had deteriorated, a zoo spokeswoman said. Camille, a 17-year-old Bactrian camel, was put down in her stall shortly after daybreak as keepers, veterinarians and curators looked on, zoo spokeswoman Peper Long said. Zoo records show that the camel had been unable to walk or stand at times and that the animal had been heavily medicated for at least two years.

Practice makes perfect for Lulu the camel, who gave birth to her third baby Wednesday at Moorpark College's teaching zoo all by herself. A student making rounds found Lulu and her newborn nuzzling. "She did it great and all on her own," said Holly Mandelkow, an operations assistant at the zoo. This time was apparently much easier for Lulu than giving birth to Baby No. 1. "With the first one we had to help a lot," said Lulu's trainer, DeAnn Zarkowski.

Did you promise to get active in 2011? If you have a taste for the offbeat — swamp soccer, anyone? — these one-of-a-kind sporting events can help you keep that promise and travel at the same time. The World Bog Snorkeling Championship If you love to snorkel, you can have a "bog-tastic" experience at the World Bog Snorkeling Championship in August in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, where snorkelers complete two lengths of a 60-yard water-filled trench cut through a peat bog. Competitors wear snorkels and flippers, but they don't use conventional strokes — just their flippers.

"You have served me camel. " "No, no, it's goat. " "It's camel," said Lucas, the driver. "Goat," said the waiter. Unconvinced, but with limited dining options, Lucas spooned meat and gristle from a silver bowl onto his rice. He ate quickly. This wasn't his kind of place, this outpost of herders, mechanics, butchers and a few Lutheran missionaries scattered at the fringe of a refugee camp. He would be here one night, then back to Nairobi. The guesthouse, where he parked his SUV behind a metal gate, seemed safe enough and the manager, a tall man with a short broom in his hands, had a reassuring, timeless face, one you could count on when darkness fell.