Aborigines in Australia killing boredom by hunting camels

London, Feb 11 : Aborigines in Australia's arid desert interior have found a new way to overcome boredom and substance abuse - hunting camels.

Aborigines living in Kintore decided to take up the activity as the place offers few jobs and almost no recreational opportunities like many isolated aboriginal settlements.

Therefore, the boredom and frustration has driven the youth to crime, alcohol, cannabis use and petrol sniffing.

Besides this, camels have ravaged Aboriginal communities and are therefore considered a pest in the region, with up to a million camels cutting a destructive path across the outback.

They are seen as a growing threat to desert ecosystems and Outback cattle properties because they foul water holes and barge through wire fences.

Therefore, the new activity not only helps these young people tackle boredom and substance abuse but save their community from the destruction of these desert animals.

In the remote outpost of Kintore, a six-hour drive west of Alice Springs, young people venture into the desert once a week in search of feral camels and they are accompanied by one of the town's three police officers.

"The first time we went out, we got three camels - two big ones and one small one," the Telegraph quoted Farren Marks, a 19-year-old aborigine, as saying.

"It makes me happy to go out hunting because I can bring back meat for my family," Marks added.

The hunting of camels began six months ago. Until now, around 15 animals have been shot and butchered by a shifting group of around 20 hunters, the youngest just 13.

"The young fellas are pretty good at tracking the camels. When they find a camel they shoot it, butcher it, bring the meat back and share it with their families," Tom Holyoake, a white youth worker tasked with preventing substance abuse in the town of 300 people, said.

ANI