Saudi Arabia has announced plans to issue passports to the Kingdom’s millions of camels, to better manage the country’s prized herds.
The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture promised that the initiative would “increase productivity and efficiency in the sector and build a reliable reference database for camels”.
A social media post from the ministry on Tuesday included a photo of the document: a green passport with the country’s coat of arms on it and a gold image of a camel.
The passport will “help organize sales and trade activities by regulating trade and transportation, ensuring official documentation, protecting the rights of owners and facilitating proof of ownership,” state-backed broadcaster Al Ekhbariya said.
In 2024, the government estimated that there were approximately 2.2 million camels in the Kingdom.
Camels have long been an essential means of transportation in Arabia, conferring status on their owners and fueling the rise of a lucrative breeding industry.
The Kingdom also hosts annual camel beauty contests, where Saudi enthusiasts spend hundreds of thousands of dollars competing in the animals – and unscrupulous people sometimes look for an illegal advantage.
Organizers have cracked down on cosmetic enhancements in recent years, a malpractice that flourishes amid fierce competition and despite stiff penalties.
Methods to soften camels’ lips and enhance their humps are particularly frowned upon by authorities who want to promote a natural appearance.
Camels have been essential to life on the Arabian Peninsula for millennia. Research published in 2021 shows that life-size carvings of camels and horses carved into rock walls in Saudi Arabia could be around 7,000 years old.
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