There can鈥檛 be many scientists like Lulu Skidmore, scientific director of the Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai. She鈥檚 never had to apply for a research grant or worry about finding money for salaries or bills. This is all taken care of by the centre鈥檚 owner, the racehorse-owning Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates鈥� defence minister. So what鈥檚 the catch? It鈥檚 this: the prince wants Dubai to become the world鈥檚 leading centre for camel breeding research. And he wants Skidmore to breed camels that will win in Dubai鈥檚 famous camel races. Ehsan Masood asks the woman they call the camel queen if she鈥檚 succeeding in the sport of sheikhs.
Are camels still used for transport? Four-wheel drives are surely the vehicles of choice in most desert countries.
In Dubai and other states of the United Arab Emirates, camels are more or less used only for camel racing. But in other parts of the Middle East as well as Africa, India and Pakistan, camels still have many traditional uses. People who live out in the desert will have one or two camels as well as their four-wheel drive. You鈥檒l also find camels in Australia, where there鈥檚 a smaller racing industry. You鈥檒l even find them in the US. Last year I gave a lecture to a camel group in St Louis. Several of the people there were the sort of camel owners who have two or three camels for riding or film making, or as pets.
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What exactly does camel breeding research involve?
Our lab concentrates on embryo transfer and artificial insemination-basically using surrogate camels to produce top-class racing breeds. We鈥檙e also trying to produce hybrids between camels and guanacos, which are the wild antecedents of llamas.
Why do you need to use surrogate mothers?
A camel pregnancy lasts 13 months. If you鈥檝e got a quality racing female, you want to keep her galloping on the track throughout the season, but she can鈥檛 be racing and heavily pregnant at the same time. The solution is to get her to produce more than one follicle-or egg-by giving her hormones. We call it superovulation. After 10 days, this female is mated to a desired male and, hopefully, she鈥檒l produce more than one embryo. These embryos are later flushed out of her uterus and transferred individually into surrogate camels who carry the pregnancy to term.
This way, a good female camel can return to the racetrack and not interrupt her career, while those camels who don鈥檛 race as well get to carry the pregnancy. This technique allows us to vastly increase the number of offspring from one camel each year: say 10 instead of just one. We鈥檝e recovered as many as 25 embryos in one flush using this technique. Camel trainers prefer to get female calves as they tend to be less temperamental and faster on the track than males. But getting a female is still a matter of chance.
Do the camels feel any pain?
It doesn鈥檛 hurt the camels at all. We don鈥檛 do anything surgical or invasive. And the hormone treatment doesn鈥檛 affect them in any way. We certainly aren鈥檛 a baby factory for camels. Each female would be superovulated and flushed at most twice each season. It鈥檚 not as if we鈥檙e treating them every week.
How easy is it to get camels to mate naturally? Or do you need to use artificial insemination?
We often use AI, as male camels don鈥檛 have a particularly high libido and they soon get tired. Another reason is that if we get a good male and want to increase his gene pool, we collect his semen and then inseminate four or five different females with that one jump. So again, you鈥檙e increasing his offspring while decreasing his workload.
If males don鈥檛 have a high libido, how do you get them to ejaculate? I suppose, what I鈥檓 asking is: what鈥檚 the equivalent of the dirty mag for dromedaries?
We use artificial vaginas, which are a kind of rubber-coated tube. It鈥檚 the same method used to collect semen in cattle. We just let him sit on the female as if he鈥檚 going to mate with her in the normal way. We鈥檒l have an oestrous female sitting there waiting for him, so to speak. He gets on as if to mate her naturally, and then my assistant will redirect him into this artificial vagina which is filled with water. It鈥檚 warm and lubricated and he doesn鈥檛 know the difference, so he just ejaculates away. It鈥檚 all quite harmless stuff. We鈥檙e not doing anything funny.
Have you thought about cloning camels by nuclear transfer, the technology used to create Dolly the cloned sheep?
I haven鈥檛 really thought about cloning. The technology isn鈥檛 fully developed at the moment. In our case, there seems little point in cloning because superovulation produces numerous offspring who are all top-class racing camels.
Does your research have any uses beyond racing?
Oh, yes. Instead of breeding racing camels, you could get camels for milk production, which are used in Mauritania. Or you could breed bigger camels for domestic meat consumption like in Egypt, or stronger camels in countries like Kenya where they are used for transport. In each case, all the extra females-like the ones that don鈥檛 produce milk-can be the carriers. And you can build up a dairy herd in two or three years, rather than wait a decade by breeding one calf for every good female at a time. Many of these countries don鈥檛 have the means to do their own research, so they send scientists to us for training. We hold workshops each year for scientists from all over the world.
How well have your camels been doing on the racetrack?
Our camels have been doing really well and we鈥檙e now attaching microchips to them so that we can properly monitor their performance. Though for me, it鈥檚 difficult to follow them once they start racing as all the racing commentary is in Arabic.
Are you allowed to place bets on your camels? With so much inside knowledge, I鈥檇 have thought you鈥檇 do pretty well?
Betting isn鈥檛 allowed in Dubai. There鈥檚 no tote and there are no bookies. It鈥檚 against the law. The races and the prizes are all funded by the royal family as a kind of public service. Many of the camels are owned by ordinary Bedouins. Their dream is to try and sell a winning camel to a royal.
What does Sheikh Mohammed make of the centre鈥檚 work?
He鈥檚 very supportive and takes a close interest in what we do. He knows who鈥檚 who and recognises all the camels. We feel quite flattered by all the attention.
How much do you think it鈥檚 costing him?
I wouldn鈥檛 have a clue. I鈥檓 one of those lucky people that never sees a bill. I think I鈥檓 the luckiest scientist in the world, compared to my colleagues in the UK who always seem to be rushing around for research grants.
Camels have a reputation for stubbornness. Do your camels do as they鈥檙e told?
They鈥檙e definitely animals with a mind of their own. But, at the same time, they鈥檙e very placid. Everyone thinks they bite and kick, but they don鈥檛 at all. They rarely get frightened by anything, so they鈥檙e not going to suddenly charge off in the way horses do. They鈥檙e far keener on just eating their hay and standing around. But they do have a bit of an air of superiority. They鈥檒l always lift their heads up. This means that they鈥檙e not necessarily the most affectionate animals either. They rarely spit. I don鈥檛 think ours have spat at anybody. They sometimes regurgitate their food but they鈥檙e not really spitting. The New World camels, the llamas and guanacos, however, will definitely spit, and cover you in the contents of their stomach.
Talking of guanacos, why did you create Rama the cama, which made headlines a couple of years ago as the world鈥檚 first camel-guanaco hybrid?
Guanacos and camels were once a single species, but became separated around 30 million years ago. After I鈥檇 finished my PhD, my examiners and I sat down with Sheikh Mohammed and wondered whether they could be recombined. Sheikh Mohammed was very interested and said: 鈥淚f nobody鈥檚 done it, why don鈥檛 we have a go?鈥�
On the practical side of things, a hybrid hopefully has the advantage of having a camel鈥檚 stamina and strength, and also the woolly fleece of a guanaco. Rama鈥檚 got the woolly fleece and he鈥檚 also very strong and now stands about three inches taller than his mum. We鈥檝e been trying to produce more, but it鈥檚 not been that easy. We鈥檝e had a lot conceived, but no embryos have been carried successfully to term. It would be nice to get a female, which we鈥檇 try and mate with Rama. When Rama鈥檚 a little older, we鈥檒l try and collect semen and inseminate camels and guanacos to see if he鈥檚 fertile.
Desert countries have a long history of camel breeding. Is there anything you鈥檝e picked up from the old-timers?
There鈥檚 a lot you can learn from traditional camel men. One thing that they say they can predict is pregnancy. With all of our modern technology-our scanning machines and ultrasounds-the earliest we can tell whether a camel鈥檚 pregnant is at 17 days. If we measure progesterone from a blood sample, we can get an idea of pregnancy within 14 days.
But on traditional breeding farms, they don鈥檛 use any fancy equipment. At the end of the mating season, handlers will get a bunch of female camels to parade past a male. Females who lift their tails are supposed to be pregnant. When I first came here I thought: 鈥淲hat a mad idea.鈥� But it actually works most of the time. In fact, by lifting its tail, the female is signalling to the male: 鈥淒on鈥檛 touch me, I鈥檓 not available yet.鈥� I don鈥檛 think you should scorn these older guys. They were doing quite well before we came along.
Any future projects?
We鈥檙e aiming to freeze embryos and semen in liquid nitrogen. If we succeed, it will mean we won鈥檛 have to synchronise the process of extracting the embryo from the donor and inseminating the surrogate mother. Freezing will also allow them to be transported around the world to other camel herds, which is better than transporting live camels. We鈥檝e had some success here. Using one new method, we transferred frozen embryos to four recipient camels, and all four became pregnant.
What do your colleagues make of your 鈥渃amel queen鈥� label?
They think it鈥檚 hilarious. We鈥檙e in a fairly unique position over here. There aren鈥檛 many of us playing with camels, and there are even fewer girls. So I鈥檝e been known as the 鈥渃amel lady鈥� or the 鈥渃amel woman鈥� for some time.