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Dead camels found with up to 53kg of plastic in their stomachs

Hundreds of camels across the UAE have died because of plastic consumption over the past decade, a study has shown.

Of 30,000 camels analysed since 2008, in the field or in a laboratory by staff from Dubai’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, about 300 died because of polybezoars – lumps of indigestible material made of plastic.

That translates to about one in 100 camel deaths in the UAE due to the consumption of plastic waste left behind by humans either camping or generally littering.

The study, entitled The Plight of Camels Eating Plastic Waste, was recently published in the Journal of Arid Environments. It said polybezoars found in camel stomachs can weigh up to 53kg or as much as some people.

As well as plastic bags, polybezoars also often contain rope and parts of plastic bottles, including caps, which accumulate over years when the animals eat them in the mistaken belief they are food.

Excessive consumption of non-degradable waste can mean a drawn out and agonising death for camels.

“For me, as a veterinarian, to see all this suffering of animals, it’s just devastating,” said Dr Ulrich Wernery, the CVRL’s scientific director and an author of the paper.

“If you go through the desert you find plastic everywhere. People don’t care; they throw their stuff out of their car and it flies everywhere.”

The first author of the study, Dr Marcus Eriksen, the US-based co-founder and research director of a plastic pollution campaigning organisation, the 5 Gyres Institute, saw first-hand how the problem of plastic waste in the Gulf has increased.

A former Marine, who fought in the first Gulf War three decades ago, Dr Eriksen was taken to the desert near Dubai by Dr Wernery and said there was far more debris now than when he was first in the region.

“What I saw was devastating,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how much trash, 30 years later, was blowing across the desert.”

In the desert, Dr Wernery showed him camel skeletons with polybezoars visible inside the ribs. These huge lumps of plastic waste had clearly caused the animals’ death.

Polybezoars kill in different ways. They create what Dr Eriksen described as “extremely painful” blockages that may prove fatal, and also cause the number of bacteria inside the camels to spike, resulting in deadly infections.

By filling up the stomach, and discouraging eating, they lead to starvation because few nutrients are absorbed. The animals are likely to suffer “incessant pain”.

“It could take months or years to accumulate to the point where it becomes a detrimental effect,” Dr Eriksen said.

“It goes from discomfort to detriment … The animal slowly dies. All that time they’re suffering.”

A key problem, said Dr Eriksen, is that plastic bags are often caught by the wind and blown across the desert even if initially disposed of properly.

As a result, the authors of the study suggested that, “careful consideration be placed on the role of single-use plastics, their current use and eventual elimination from modern societies.”

A compulsory levy on plastic bags could help to reduce their use, said Dr Eriksen. Such a measure would mirror compulsory charges introduced in many other countries.

According to UK government figures, large supermarkets in England gave out 7.6 billion single-use plastic bags in 2014, the year before a 5p (Dh0.24) compulsory levy was introduced. The charge reduced the number of plastic bags used by more than four fifths.

The researchers also suggest consideration be given to a ban on single-use plastics, along with tougher fines for people who discard plastic bags.

“You cannot just talk to people and say, ‘Please don’t litter’. They don’t listen to you. You have to punish them,” said Dr Wernery.

“They will stop when they feel it in their pocket.”