A three-year study has found that Australia's one million-plus camel population is out of control, prompting suggestions that a good way to bring down the number of camels is to eat them.
The report, which was co-author by the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre's agribusiness lecturer, Professor Murray McGregor, said that Australia has the world's largest herd of wild camels.
It said the animals are inflicting major damage on fragile desert ecosystems, water sources, rare plants and animals, and indigenous sites.
Camels also make climate change worse by burping up greenhouse gases and turning various landscapes into deserts.
The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre will serve up camel at a barbecue for senior public servants in Canberra this week to try to win them around.
Camel is on the menu in Alice Springs, but McGregor said it did not appear to be standard fare in metropolitan areas.
Australians have already been urged to eat more kangaroo for environmental reasons.
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