Saudi Arabia has announced plans to issue passports to millions of the kingdom's camels, to help 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 stamped with the country's coat of arms and a golden image of a camel.
The passport will "contribute to organizing sales and trading operations by regulating trade and transportation, providing official documentation, protecting the rights of owners, and facilitating proof of ownership," according to state-backed broadcaster Al Ekhbariya.
In 2024, the government estimated that there were about 2.2 million camels in the kingdom.
Camels have long been a vital mode of transportation in Arabia, conferring status on their owners and fueling the growth of a profitable breeding industry.
The kingdom also organizes "camel beauty contests" at annual festivals, where Saudi enthusiasts spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the animal competitors.
Camels have been essential to life on the Arabian Peninsula for thousands of years, with research published in 2021 suggesting that life-size carvings of camels and horses carved into rocks in Saudi Arabia could be around 7,000 years old. /Telegrafi/
