Camel beauty pageant to be held in UAE

by Amy Judd | April 2, 2008 at 06:19 am

3346 views | 19 Recommendations | 40 comments

If you happen to own an attractive camel and think that yours is the best looking camel out there, then head on over to the United Arab Emirates for the annual camel beauty contest.
I have to wonder what the camels are judged on - longest eyelashes, glossiest coat, furthest distance they can spit?

The contest in Abu Dhabi is one of the richest and biggest events of its kind, with more than $9m (£4.5m; 5.8m euros) and 100 cars in prizes up for grabs.

The contest will feature camels or "ships of the desert" from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Organisers hope it will remind Emiratis of traditional desert values.

The contest is part of the Mazayin Dhafra festival, which starts on Wednesday, and organisers say it is the biggest contest of its kind to be staged in the Arabian Gulf.

A panel of expert camel appreciators will choose the best animals for each age group.

Entry is open to anyone who can prove ownership of a pedigree camel, and the animals must be free from contagious diseases, and without any serious defects.

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:26 on April 2nd, 2008

Camels may not be conventionally attractive, but they have character, and that should count for something.

René

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:56 on April 2nd, 2008

Interesting to see how they are spending their oil-money. see who all the sponsors are here

Amy Judd

at 07:35 on April 2nd, 2008

Very interesting, thanks Rene!

wunder

at 08:20 on April 2nd, 2008

amyjudd

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Marksda1

at 08:27 on April 2nd, 2008

This series of photos was taken at the Daraw Camel Market in Egypt. They are brought there from Sudan and sold at market.

Marksda1 has contributed a photo to this story.

celebrity4sure

at 08:38 on April 2nd, 2008

This beauty makes its home at the Los Angeles Zoo. He certainly didn't seem interested in me taking his picture.

celebrity4sure has contributed a photo to this story.

René

at 08:40 on April 2nd, 2008

Just in case you think they're blowing all their money on frivolous things, check out this report 'America for Sale'. That $9 million in prizes is just spare change.

iuliacarpov

at 09:08 on April 2nd, 2008

The camel stood in front of the Treasury at Petra, calm as the place, making you wonder if maybe the only ghosts there were the ever coming and going turists ...
It's one of the images that will keep me coming back to Middle East.

iuliacarpov has contributed a photo to this story.

aviles.luis90

at 09:21 on April 2nd, 2008

a friend of mine and i spent a couple of days in the dessert with this kid and his dad. it was amazing to see how docile and obedient they can be. this kid was incredibly skillfull with his camel. i can only compare it to a kid and his bike on my city.

aviles.luis90 has contributed a photo to this story.

saswati

at 09:35 on April 2nd, 2008

These pics were taken at the Camel Research Farm, 8kms away from Bikaner(Rajasthan), India.
This is apparently the largest camel research center in Asia.
Bikaner is also the proud host of the annual camel festival held in India.

saswati has contributed a photo to this story.

thubbard

at 09:44 on April 2nd, 2008

This photo was taken at the circus. He was not happy about people riding him and was letting everyone know about it.

thubbard has contributed a photo to this story.

any179

at 10:04 on April 2nd, 2008

This photo was taken at the Miami Zoo, when this beautiful camel stroke such a glamorous pose I captured it.

any179 has contributed a photo to this story.

Mohammad N. Al-Saleh

at 10:10 on April 2nd, 2008

Mohammad N. Al-Saleh has contributed a photo to this story.

tamara_danforth

at 11:46 on April 2nd, 2008

Rseton Zoo in Virginia. They are camel lovers

tamara_danforth has contributed a photo to this story.

Danny Lakeboy

at 11:58 on April 2nd, 2008

Scariest camel ever.

Danny Lakeboy has contributed a photo to this story.

Jonathan Poritsky

at 12:11 on April 2nd, 2008

This camel was giving rides to tourists in Petra, Jordan.

Jonathan Poritsky has contributed a photo to this story.

BShep85

at 12:17 on April 2nd, 2008

This camel was taking a break from giving rides at the Ren Faire in Arizona.

Bonella has contributed a photo to this story.

amin2511

at 13:05 on April 2nd, 2008

taken in Douz, southern Tunisia

amin2511 has contributed a photo to this story.

ånnâvérsãrÿ

at 13:12 on April 2nd, 2008

This CAMEL picture was taken @ The LA Zoo. Nothing special O.O But cool!

ånnâvérsãrÿ has contributed a photo to this story.

SamboJambo

at 13:25 on April 2nd, 2008

This camel was playing polo in Dalanzadgad in Southern Mongolia last month... clever as well as good looking. The match had come down to a penalty shoot out, unfortunately on this run they not only missed the goal but missed the ball completely! The crowd loved it but dissapointment was clearly felt by the camel who sulked for the rest of the day..

SamboJambo has contributed a photo to this story.

Jordan Yerman

at 14:06 on April 2nd, 2008

These are some stellar camels, displaying ample beauty* and character. If it were up to me, we'd have a winner already.

(* in camel terms)

Amy Judd

at 15:05 on April 2nd, 2008

My winner would be this one.

tedra.a

at 15:15 on April 2nd, 2008

The camel pictured here is part of a desert animal exhibit at the Living Desert in Palm Desert, California. It is an Arabian (dromedary) camel. Dromedaries were first domesticated in Arabia between 4000 and 2000 BC and later expanded to Egypt and North Africa; eventually they reached East Africa and India. On the day this photo was taken, the winds had picked up and many of the animals were somewhat lethargic due to the amount of dust and sand blowing around. Camels are well adapted for this type of situation, but that does not mean they enjoy it.

tedra.a has contributed a photo to this story.

Vinny

at 15:15 on April 2nd, 2008

Here's a late entry

Camel, originally uploaded by (Dubai **** دبـــــــــــــي) UAE.

Barry Artiste

at 17:29 on April 5th, 2008

Joe Camel, I love it !!!!

A Hundred twenty years ago in British Columbia we used to have camels all along the Gold Rush trail, for some reasons miners thought they were sure footed on high mountainous trails, obviously and tragically they were wrong.

How come my Good Stuff Flag doesn't work?

jequick

at 21:42 on April 2nd, 2008

This nosy fellow from Qatar was very forward, if nothing else.

jequick has contributed a photo to this story.

tahira sheriff

at 23:34 on April 2nd, 2008

There i was driving on the dusty roads of Delhi to Agra, on my way to see the Taj Mahal. During this long drive i encountered a herd of camels in a straight line. This of course was a surprise because I always thought camels were found only in the Middle East.These animals were apparently used to transport fabric from specific regions in India. Disappointed that i was unable to capture it on camera I continued with my drive... then as if my prayers were answered a few miles away there was a man riding a camel... i stopped the car in an abrupt halt and jumped into the carriage (surprising the old man riding it in the process) to take this memorable snap :)

tahira sheriff has contributed a photo to this story.

lanky_larry

at 00:47 on April 3rd, 2008

This photo was taken on a farm just outside Alice Springs in Australia

lanky_larry has contributed a photo to this story.

hongkongjones

at 03:12 on April 3rd, 2008

These camels carried us to the edge of the Gobi desert near JiaYuGuan in Northern China. It was early morning and very cold, with a full moon that the camels seemed to gaze at as they walked.

hongkongjones has contributed a photo to this story.