Camels of the Coto
Sir: In his review of Robyn Davidson's Tracks (14 March) James Hughes-Onslow quotes, among the 'facts' about camels supplied by Thomas Cook, 'that the last ones in Spain were eaten during the Civil War'. This is quite incorrect. One only has to read Guy Mountfort's Portrait of a Wilderness — the story of the Coto Dofiana expeditions — to learn the true facts: 'Until a few years ago the famous and astonishing animals of the Coto Dofiana were the wild camels, which provided visitors with a sight unlikely to be forgotten . . living, not in the desert region as one would expect, but in the marismas . . About eighty camels were brought from the Canary Islands to Cadiz in 1829. . . Finally they were turned loose on the Coto, where they soon settled down'. By 1950 only five beasts remained and they were eventually stolen . . . The owners of the Coto immediately took legal proceedings to obtain their return . . . as this book goes to press, some eight years later, the outcome has yet to be decided.'
Comparatively recently, in December 1961 during the filming of Lawrence of Arabia in Seville, camels were used as 'extras'. Later I heard that these had been purchased from a circus; another story was that they came from Tenerife. Eventually, I was told that they were used in the rice fields of Andalusia. I have heard no more. no more.
Peter W. Hopkins Estacion Biologica de Doiiana, Calle Paraguay, Seville, Spain
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