Name error risk for wild camels

The desperate plight of the critically endangered wild camel could be masked by confusion over its name, a study warns.

There are fewer than 950 wild camels (Camelus ferus) left in Mongolia and China. But there are an estimated 35million domestic camels worldwide, including the two-humped Bactrian which the wild camel is often conflated with, researchers said.

The study warns that failing to distinguish between the two means the wild camels may not get the conservation attention they need.

Anna Jemmett, of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, the lead author of the paper, said: “Using an incorrect English common name to describe a species can have implications. In the case of the wild came, scientific evidence and local distinctions agree that it is a separate species to the Bactrian, yet it is still often referred to as a wild Bactrian camel.”