Camels were once brought to B.C. over 150 years ago and it’s a wild story

Canada feels like the last place you’d expect to see camels roaming around, but despite their popular association with the deserts of southwestern Asia and parts of Africa, they’re actually native to North America — though the first camels to walk the Earth are a far cry from their descendants today.

According to a study by Nature Communications, ancient camels were 29 percent larger than their modern-day counterparts, and ultimately migrated to Eurasia over a land bridge between Alaska and Russia called the Bering Isthmus. What’s more, they might have roamed the High Arctic of Canada around 3.5 million years ago.

In the study, scientists uncovered fossil deposits that suggest that the evolutionary history of modern camels can be traced back to a lineage of giant camels that once prospered in a forested Arctic. This means that camels once roamed as far north as Alaska and Yukon, and as far south as Mexico.

North America’s giant camel ancestors

The very first camels evolved in North America approximately 44 million years ago, during the Eocene period. However, it wasn’t until between four and three million years ago (during the late Pleistocene) that they first appeared in the fossil record.

The long-extinct Camelops hesternus (western camel) once made its home among our ancient forests, towering over sabre-toothed cats and other predators of the time at over seven feet tall. Their remarkable height helped them pick vegetation across forests, grasslands, wetlands, and woodlands, evolve into multiple different camel species, and freely wander the continent for some three million years—until the last ice age forced them to relocate.

Once the mighty Camelops vanished from the continent around 13,000 years ago, they never returned. That is, until their successors were brought over during the gold rush era to be used as pack animals.

Bactrian camels arrive in the U.S. and Canada

Prior to the U.S. Civil War, camel caravans were a common sight in the American Southwest. In 1855, 75 Bactrian (two humps) and Arabian (one hump) camels were imported from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Turkey to help the U.S. military pack and transport their supplies.

In May of 1862, 25 camels were brought to Victoria aboard a steamship from San Francisco during the Cariboo Gold Rush. Merchant Otto Esche had used the Bactrian camels to great success during the California Gold Rush, so gold prospectors were hopeful that the animals would adapt well and do the same in B.C.

It was incorrectly assumed that camels could go six to 10 days without water and travel 50 to 70 km a day with a 500-kg load.

“While the camels performed well initially, carrying up to double what was capable from mules and donkeys, they were also extremely temperamental and would kick at anything nearby,” explains Coquitlam Heritage. “They were good foragers but also had a tendency to eat anything they had access to, including soap and clothing of the miners.”

Their hooves, used to the softer desert terrain in Asia and Africa, were unaccustomed to the rocky, forested B.C. terrain that their ancestors once roamed. Despite miners making special canvas boots to protect them, the camels started struggling very quickly.

The sight and strong smell of the camels were also said to frighten the horses so much that it would lead them to fall off cliffs as they were running away. This also caused stampedes, leading ot fatal accidents involving miners and animals alike.

What happened to the Cariboo camels?

A Lillooet entrepreneur, John Calbreath, was the one who purchased the camels (for $300 each) that were put to work in the Cariboo region. But just four months into their use during the gold rush, the B.C. Supreme Court outlawed the use of camels on the Cariboo Trail.

By 1863, the surviving camels were retired completely, and either sent to ranches or released into the wilderness, though not even their thick, shaggy winter coats could protect them against the upcoming Canadian winter.

The oldest known surviving Bactrian camel, known as The Lady, lived out the rest of her life in a ranch in Westwold, B.C. Some accounts say she died sometime during the late 1890s, though B.C. historian Judge Frederick William Holloway claims that she lived until 1905. 

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