Pelican Yoga

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#15 in series: the other kind of camel)

Published September 27, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#15 in series: the other kind of camel)

The lake’s gentle shoreline is circa 3,960 metres above sea level – a deal higher than New Zealand’s highest peak.

Circa 190 kilometres west of Kashgar, Xinjiang’s Karakul Lake is probably the most-visited location by tourists who travel the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway; it offers tented accommodation, al fresco dining with jaw-dropping vistas, and lakeside rides on horses and camels.

The pictured Bactrian camel was nowhere near the upper end of its altitude range; in both military and civilian capacities some are currently working very effectively at well above 5,000 metres.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#14 in series: almost “curtains” for India’s camels & their kindly herders?)

Published September 23, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#14 in series: almost “curtains” for India’s camels & their kindly herders?)

Globally, camel numbers are “exploding”, but India’s population is a small fraction of what it was half a century ago; it is still declining, rapidly.

India’s camels might be in the process of “disappearing”, along with a globally-unique and uncommonly-benevolent approach to camel husbandry.

Rajasthan – specifically, its part of the Thar Desert – has always accounted for most of India’s camels.

It is also home to most of the Raikas; for many generations they have revered, herded, trained, milked and bred camels. (and sheep).

Members of this indigenous tribe/cultural group abhor the very idea of killing or mistreating camels.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#13 in series: “ship of the desert”, in “giraffe mode”)

Published September 20, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#13 in series: “ship of the desert”, in “giraffe mode”)

So many things which are oft-said about camels – and widely-believed – are simply untrue.

“Australia has the world’s largest camel population” is a ludicrous assertion; many other countries have many more camels.

However, another oft-made claim – that more camels now live in Australia than in Egypt – probably is true.

Australia almost certainly has the largest population of feral camels…all of the same species as the individual pictured above, in Rajasthan – Camelus dromedarius, the dromedary.

It is sometimes (wrongly) called “the Arabian camel”.

Currently, more than 90% of “our” planet’s camels are dromedaries.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#12: counting sheep)

Published September 17, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#12: counting sheep)

Per hectare, sheep are more populous in Rajasthan’s portion of the Thar Desert than is true of sheep, per hectare, across Australia.

Much the greater portion of the Thar Desert’s circa 264,000 square kilometres is in western India, mostly in Rajasthan. (circa 60% of the Thar Desert is within Rajasthan)

Sheep numbers are highly variable, and hugely difficult to count, accurately.

That said, circa 8 million of Rajasthan’s sheep live in the Thar Desert, as do circa 30 million humans.

On a “per unit area” basis, no other desert on earth goes remotely close to matching those figures.

As this post’s images illustrate, the ways in which Rajasthan’s humans “manage” their livestock (and land) are utterly unlike what Australian humans regard as “normal”.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#11 in series: hardy sheep)

Published September 15, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#11 in series: hardy sheep)

Some domesticated sheep (and their owners) survive – even thrive – in astonishingly “difficult” environments .

The pictured individual is a member of a well-tended flock in a desert that is home to enormously more humans than most of the world’s humans would regard as remotely “possible”

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#10 in series: sheep, looking at dog and duck)

Published September 12, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#10 in series: sheep, looking at dog and duck)

The featured image was taken just seconds after the previous post’s.

In #9 you were looking at a dog and duck; they were looking at sheep.

This chapter’s featured image shows the now-sheltered sheep, returning the canine/avian gaze.

All were photographed within the fold/pen to which a Moroccan family’s sheep and goats return, after each day’s grazing.

I think that the duck had become “imprinted”. In this context, at least, it saw itself as a sheepdog!

In truth, even the dog’s non-imaginary herding skills were superfluous.

These sheep (plus a couple of goats) were obviously accustomed to their daily routine…and fully “on board” with spending their nights on the safe side of a wolf-proof barrier.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#9 in series: the dog and duck)

Published September 10, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#9 in series: the dog and duck)

Various nations, continents and islands have pubs/“ale houses” which call themselves The Dog and Duck.

The most famous – possibly, “the original” – has flourished in London’s Soho for nearly 130 years.

“Notable” patrons have included members of the local Royal Family, and a “Madonna” – by stage-name, only.

The pub’s “tag” is pure whimsy.

However, the upstairs dining room has a meaningful name; it honours the most widely-esteemed of the venue’s “regulars” – George Orwell.

As it happens, in 1938 & 1939, a recuperating Orwell and his (first) wife Eileen Blair spent 6 months in the African nation where, in October 2025, I photographed this post’s co-heroes.

Can you correctly guess what the real-life dog and duck were doing on the fringe of a small town in Morocco?

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#8 in series: extreme Alpine transhumance)

Published September 7, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#8 in series: extreme Alpine transhumance)

“Alpine transhumance”, according to its Wikipedia entry:

seasonal droving of grazing livestock between the valleys in winter and the high mountain pastures in summer.

Unsurprisingly, if you google for the term, and/or for information on high-altitude pastures, most of what you will find refers to Europe.

Europe’s largest single example of high altitude pasture (in Italy’s South Tyrolean Dolomites) covers 57 square kilometres; it sits between 1,600 & 2,350 metres above sea level.

Most European Alpine pastures are below 2,400 metres; none reach higher than 2,800 metres.

The domesticated sheep pictured above were grazing on grassy slopes at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres.

On the Tibetan Plateau, however, they were not remotely close to Alpine pastures’ “upper limit”!

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#7 in series: grand grazing on elevated “flats”)

Published September 4, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#7 in series: grand grazing on elevated “flats”)

Only the foreground’s river flats offer really lush grazing for the pictured cattle and sheep..

Their feet stand on the Pamir Plateau in western China…very close to the border with Tajikistan, and close to the edges of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Very little precipitation falls on the pictured plain; in a typical year, most of it would arrive as snow or sleet.

Local landscapes are truly “epic”; their low points are still more than 3,000 metres above sea level – much higher than the Australian continent’s tallest peak.

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