Rising oil prices have many Homo sapiens in a tizzy, but at least one species is celebrating high fuel costs: the camel. Finding it spendy to fuel their tractors, farmers in India are turning to ungulate power. “It’s excellent for the camel population if the price of oil continues to go up because demand for camels will also go up,” says Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. That’s good news for Indian camels, which have seen their population drop by more than half in the last decade. Camel supporters hope that pushing the animals’ usefulness as transportation will get them over the hump to a sustainable population.
