Oman: the animals

I'm an animal person. Let me rephrase... I don't want to envelope them in my arms and rescue them all, necessarily, but there's something elemental that stirs me when you see the creatures of earth, moving in their natural habitat, an environment not staged by man, and not constructed by union workers. Most recently, the animals of Yellowstone brought about breathtaking memories for me. (For my 40th, I hope to be seeing the big five in Africa)

So going to Oman, I was prepared for camel sightings. I figured we would eventually run into one at some point in our ten day journey.


We first spotted our hump-backed friends at the Muscat Festival. There was no free roaming for these gentlemen - they were tied to a small area. And one was even foaming at the mouth under a muzzle of some sort. Eww. So, not necessarily the 'natural' habitat I had hoped but the initial sighting did give me scale. And an indication that muzzling may be a necessity around people. Eric reluctantly stood close, with his lean-in-close-to-wild-animal pose that echoed the shots I had taken of the deer elk in Wyoming.


We move on in our tour to seaside fisherman communities where large amounts of goats roam.


Initially, one would suppose Omanis have goats purely for food and protein. I was expecting to see goats being slaughtered in markets or shops. Images of skinned legs hanging from clay ceilings. Honestly, this was not the case.



As our guide Khalid explained, family own many goats. Upwards of 50 or 75 if they live remotely. Like dogs here in the U.S., some are regarded as pets. In rural areas, they are considered more as livestock or an indication of status.


They travel in packs and are turned-out in the mornings from the family's pen. They roam. Eat. Roam. Eat. Well, you get the idea. In the desert, far from their Bedouin homes, and when food is scarce, you may find them munching on shrubbery some 3-5 miles from their roost. At night, supposedly, they return home. And if the farmer is missing one, as Khalid said, he knows exactly where his brood has been and will drive/ride to that area to fetch the goat. Success rates of finding any lost goats are apparently close to one hundred percent.


Goats are also bartered and sold in souks, and we had a glorious chance of visiting the Nizwa Souk on their holy day (Friday) for a fast and furious goat haggling adventure. On this day, the goats were going for about 30 OMR, or about $85.


The most desired goats are females, naturally, and those that are pregnant are even more lucrative. Khalid explained this is because a fair portion of pregnant goats actually deliver twins.

The auctioning was controlled chaos, wherein the farmers offering their goats would run around in a circular motion (holding their prized animal), yelling as to the unique characteristics of the goat they were holding. And the bartering is constant as the farmer would move around and around to interested buyers. The buyers were stacked close together, sometimes 4-5 people thick, shouting, shaking fingers, inspecting the goats. The goats added their own two cents to conversations with loud 'baaahs' during negotiations. It was truly interesting to see the Arabic exchange between parties as to why this particular goat was the best goat of the morning for whatever reason.


Once a goat was bought, he was either kept with the new owner (which made for tight standing quarters), or tied in a quasi-holding area until the new owner was done with all goat purchases for the day.




Camels, while less frequent than the ambling neighborhood goat, are just as stunning, especially so in the desert as they forage and linger in the desert dunes. Considering all the flat sand and lack of trees, they are quite easy to spot from long distances away. It was with almost school-girl-like excitement to eye one, and then another, and then three more, as we made our way into the Wahiba dunes.



At a water stop in the Wahiba, as we had just stopped for a picnic lunch under a lone tree (there aren't many trees in the desert, if you see one, chances are it is near a water source), an Omani man and had arrived with two camels in the back of his Toyota truck.




He was a Bedouin and was perhaps moving two of his herd from one family to another. Ah, a picture opportunity of my dreams!


The one closest to me eventually sneered, obviously displeased with my picture taking, and showed a menacing mouth full of crooked teeth, each the size of a domino. Luckily, I captured the moment without injury to either of us.