Camel festivals are serious business in the Middle East.
The 2022 Saudi Arabian King Abdulaziz Camel Festival had a prize pool of $135.5 million, with a special prize for “Miss Camel” – but big prizemoney attracts cheaters.
The owners of 20 camels were out of the competition when their animals were disqualified after the use of plastic surgery was uncovered. Photo / Greg Bowker
Twelve camels were disqualified in the 2018 Saudi competition after botox was discovered in their tips.
Camel expert Jaime Gongora quite literally wrote the rulebook on judging camel beauty and travelled to Oman.
“Interest in camel beauty competitions has grown since the boom of oil production during the 20th century, as camels became associated with status and wealth,” he wrote in The Conversation.
“The increasing popularity of camel beauty contests has caused some dissatisfaction over the absence of a formal scoring system.”
An associate professor of animal and wildlife genetics and genomics at the University of Sydney, Gongora teamed up with Omani Camel Racing Federation to develop a scoring system to improve transparency and fairness.
At Oman’s Camel Beauty Show Festival, camels are ranked on their coat, neck, head and hump.
The coat should look natural and shiny. The brighter the better. No colouring is allowed. A beautiful camel neck is considered “long, wide, elegant and lean”. The head should be large, lips “pouty and pendulous” and the hump should be large and shapely.
The Omani officials have been approached for comment.