Yuma: It's Where the Camels Are

The Middle East COMES TO YUMA

Knobby-kneed Nejela presses up against the fence, trying to give me a sloppy kiss on the cheek. Azizza, more demure, patiently waits her turn to be stroked and fed. They've got my number.

Ever since I first gazed into a pair of their mischievous long-lashed eyes in a crowded Cairo market, I've been a sucker for camels. Which is why earlier I found myself driving a dusty, unpaved road south of the city limits of Yuma, trying to locate the Saihati Camel Farm and Desert Animal Breeding Center. Bumping slowly along acres of alfalfa fields and citrus groves, I finally saw a black iron gate with a camel medallion and knew I was at the right place.

I was, however, here at the wrong time. I'd planned to come for the 10 A.M. visitors tour, but when I arrived, a half-hour late, there was no one on two feet in sight.

I wandered into an exotic Middle Eastern-style building, all curved arches and rounded windows. It turned out to be the business office, and blonde, athletic Terrill Saihati, who runs the center with her husband, Abdul-Wahed Saihati, a native of Saudi Arabia, was sitting behind a desk. It seemed no one else had shown up for this morning's tour. "But," said Terrill in the flat, friendly tones of her native Oregon, "I was just getting ready to feedthe camels. Would you like to come along?"

The Saihatis met in 1973 at a small college in St. George, Utah. They were starting an avocado-growing business in Temecula, California, when they stopped at a local breeding farm on a whim and came out owning a llama.

One llama led to another and to 60 Arabian horses and 13 one-humped Arabian camels, or dromedaries. It also led to a search for the proper place to raise them. The Saihatis took one look at Yuma, which, down to the date groves and nearby rolling sand dunes, resembled Abdul-Wahed's na-tive eastern Arabian province, and knew they had found it.

In 1988 they bought 40 acres of lemon grove just outside town. They cleared 20 of them, put up fences, sold the llamas, and got down to the business of raising desert animals. Not since the mid-1850s, when the ultimately unsuccessful Camel Corps of the U.S. Army was formed, have there been so many dromedaries in Arizona.

The camels spotted us. As Terrill and I walked toward their pen, some 30 adult dromedaries started to crowd and jostle each other like strap hangers on a New York subway trying to get a seat. As soon as we reached the fence, Terrill speed-ily started dispensing handfuls of hay.

She asked if I'd like to help. Though I've ridden camels before, I was abashed to discover that the sight of all those long yellow teeth initially intimidated me. But I was soon admiring my new friend, Nejela, and the del-icacy and rapidity with which camel molars can remove food from one's hands.

I'm next introduced to the 14 young camels that are kept in a separate pen, both in order to wean them and to allow them to enjoy their childhood for a while. If they stayed with the grownups, Terrill tells me, the three resident males would soon begin to get amorous with them.

They certainly look like they're having a good time. Four long-legged "teenagers" seem to think they're water buffaloes: they splash half the contents of their trough into the dust and then roll around happily in the resulting puddle. "It beats me," Terrill shrugs. "Camels normally hate to get wet."

The tours the Saihatis started offering in 1990 have helped dispel some common myths about camels. "People tend to stand about 20 feet away from the fence when I first start the tour," Terrill tells me. "They think the camels are going to spit at them." She explains, "Most people come into contact with over-worked, underfed animals, many of whom have been beaten. But well-treated camels are very friendly much more so than llamas, which we found to be rather aloof."

She adds wryly, "We do have to tell visitors to watch their headgear. Camels are curious by nature and some of them like to taste peo-ple's hair. And Hannah," she gestures mock-reprovingly toward an eight year old in the adult pen, "thinks straw hats are delicious."

If breeding camels and other domestic animals is a business and a pleasure for the Saihatis, raising and finding mates for rarer species of Arabian animals is a mission. The couple is devoted to making the public aware of North African breeds whose habi-tats are being destroyed and who are being hunted to near extinction.

Nothing less than the legends of the Middle East are contained in some of the(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 34 AND 35) The camels at the Saihati Camel Farm are dromedaries, a single-humped domesticated native of Arabia and North Africa. Bactrian camels, which have two humps in which to store fat, come from central Asia. While some dromedaries can pack loads of 500 to 600 pounds and cover 30 miles a day, a smaller and faster breed is used for riding. (OPPOSITE PAGE, BELOW) The farm's red-necked ostrich symbolizes what has been lost on the Arabian peninsula, where they once flourished. Adult male ostriches, the largest of living birds, can weigh up to 300 pounds and attain a height of nine feet. (LEFT) Viewed sideways, the oryx's curved horns appear as one, leading some to believe they inspired the legend of the unicorn. (RIGHT) The caracal, worshipped by ancient Egyptians and used to hunt gazelles, averages 3 1/4 feet in length. Its reaction to being petted shows off its oversize ears.

smaller pens to the left of the young camels. Terrill says the Arabian oryx is believed to be the source of the unicorn myth; viewed from the side, its long curved horns seem to meld into one. The caracal, with black tufts of fur sticking up from behind oversize ears, was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians. Religious statues and tomb images are modeled on these small cats, which also were used to hunt gazelles in Arabia and India. Other animals here are adapted uniquely to the desert: the small sand cat, which emits a barklike noise, can go for long periods without water, as can the large-eared, nocturnal fennec fox, which subsists on berries, lizards, and rodents in the wild. Although not uncommon in captivity, the 300-pound red-necked ostrich is a gawky symbol of what's been lost: they were last seen on the Arabian peninsula, where they once were abundant, in 1953.

WHEN YOU GO

The Saihatis bought a number of these rare animals from the San Diego Zoo, which initially sent an assistant curator of mammals out to the farm. “He wanted to make sure that our animals were happy and healthy and that our fences were adequate,” Terrill says. “And he came to check out our motives. Some breeders raise endangered species to stock game preserves for wealthy hunters.” Like the San Diego Zoo, the Saihatis try to ensure that all the animals they sell will be well-cared for. Abdul-Wahed interviews prospective buyers and gently tries to discourage those he thinks don't have the facilities or temperament to raise them. So far everything seems to have worked out well. As we walk slowly back to my car, Terrill reports on a number of camels that have gone on to pursue meaningful careers. One is a regular in the annual camel races in Indio, California. A ministerin Quartzsite leases another out for Passion plays and Nativity scenes, and an animal talent agent has landed two of them roles in TV commercials. Best of all, a Saihati alumnus has moved to a neighborhood near mine in Tucson; and its owner is thinking of offering camel rides in the desert. Images of Arabia whirling like dervishes through my head, I thank Terrill. With one last lingering look back, I pull out through the large gates and drive away, dromedary-sated and secure in the knowledge that, in the future, I won't have to walk much more than a mile for a camel. The Saihati Camel Farm and Desert Animal Breeding Center is just south of Yuma on Avenue 1E between County 15 and County 16. Leave Business Interstate 8 at the Avenue 3E exit and go south on Avenue 3E for about seven miles. When you come to County 16, turn right onto it and proceed two miles to Avenue 1E. Turn right again. The entrance to the farm is approximately 500 feet away, on the left side of the road. Guided tours are offered daily, except Thanksgiving and Christmas, at 10 A.M. and 2 P.M., October 1-May 31; 10 A.M. and 4:30 P.M., June 1-September 30. The cost is $3, free for children under three. Reservations are required (same-day calls okay). For more information, telephone (602) 627-2553.