“Grammy-winning rapper and producer Swizz Beatz has spent millions of dollars on camels since setting out in 2020 to become the first American to own a racing team in Saudi Arabia. Now, he’s hoping the bet will pay off as he takes the Saudi Bronx, as his herd is called, to one of the world’s richest camel races in pursuit of a $21 million prize pot. Having worked with artists like DMX, Jay-Z, Kanye West and his wife, Alicia Keys, Beatz has been engaging with a different crowd in recent years: desert Bedouins, who domesticated camels thousands of years ago. As for the races, he says “it’s a very good investment if your teams are winning.”
Cows, here and across much of Africa, have been the most important animal for eons — the foundation of economies, diets, traditions. But now grazable land is shrinking. Water sources are drying up. A three-year drought in the Horn of Africa that ended last year killed 80 percent of the cows in this part of Kenya and shattered the livelihoods of so many people…
The global camel population has doubled over the last 20 years, something the U.N. agency for agriculture and investment attributes partly to the animal’s suitability amid climate change. In times of hardship, camels produce more milk than cows. Many cite an adage: The cow is the first animal to die in a drought; the camel is the last…
But among mammals, the camel is almost singularly equipped to handle extremes. Camels can go two weeks without water, as opposed to a day or two for a cow. They can lose 30 percent of their body weight and survive, one of the highest thresholds for any large animal. Their body temperatures fluctuate in sync with daily climate patterns. When they pee, their urine trickles down their legs, keeping them cool. When they lie down, their leathery knees fold into pedestals that work to prop much of their undersides just above the ground, allowing cooling air to pass through.
One recently published paper, perhaps straying from science to reverence, called them a “miracle species.”