The Forum

Camel wrestling, which is legal in Turkey, has a rich, celebrated cultural history in this region and can definitively trace its roots back several centuries. Despite how it may sound, this sport is much less cruel than other types of animal fights – rarely is a camel actually hurt in the skirmish.

To see why the camels generally come out unscathed, a closer look into this event is required. Organized pri­marily in small Turkish villages around the Aegean Sea, the skirmish begins when two camels are marched around each other by their owners. These aren’t just any camels, though. Breeders take special pride in raising the biggest, strongest bulls and protect their animals by covering them in ceremonial battle garb. Furthermore, the camels’ mouths are tied shut to make sure the animals don’t bite each other. Although two bulls in close proximity to each other may, by itself, spark a conflict, the cam­els usually need a little more incentive to get the wrestling match started; to ac­complish this, a female camel – in heat – is brought into the arena. Suffice to say this never fails to put male camels into a fighting spirit.

There are three ways a camel can win the match. The first way is for one camel to chase the other out of the are­na. The second way is for the dominant male camel to make the other cry from frustration from the fight. The third way to win the match is more safety oriented – if a camel trips or stumbles to the ground, the match is immediately called so that the animal is not hurt by the standing camel. Since breeders generally bring their, biggest, baddest camels to the matches, a majority of bouts end in ties because the camels get too tired and seem to lose interest in the female. Furthermore, for added safety, owners are entitled to keep a little piece of knotted rope with them at all times. If, for any reason, they’re uncomfort­able with the match, they have the abil­ity to stop it immediately by tossing the rope into the arena.

The question may arise: why wrestle camels? Well, the short answer is boredom, honestly. These wrestling matches happen principally between the months of December, when prelimi­nary matches begin, and March, when the grand championships are held in Selcuk, Turkey. During this time, the weather compels farmers to let their fields lay fallow; so much of the work that occupies the villagers’ time during summer months is nonexistent. By cou­pling these wrestling matches with food and music, these events provide Turkish villagers with some well-needed enter­tainment during the down months.

So, what does the owner of the winning camel get? Well, about $30. Considering the average fighting camel costs over $1500 a year to maintain, what’s really at stake in these matches is village pride. Whichever village comes out the champion after the main event in March, which draws over 10,000 spec­tators annually, has some serious boast­ing power for the remainder of the year. Further, the owner of the winning camel gets another perk: the grand prize win­ners can sell for as much as $20,000.

David is a 1L and can be reached at forum@valpo.edu.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Sports.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.