Elizabeth Bailey
Although most of the world’s camels reside in Somalia, Ethiopia, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, one camel has made Decatur County his home.
Clyde the camel was bottle-raised at Stapp’s Circle S Ranch five miles east of Greensburg from the time he was 9 months old. At five years old, he is now a full-grown adult, measuring approximately 7 feet at the top of his hump.
“He is spoiled, spoiled, spoiled,” Scott Halberstadt, animal caretaker, said with a smile.
Clyde has a basketball he pushes around his enclosure, as well as a ball that dispenses treats as he rolls it.
“It’s sort of an exercise ball,” Halberstadt said.
His favorite treats are pretzels and apples, but he will beg for just about any food someone carries by.
“He likes to stick out his neck and block the tractor coming back from tours because he knows there is food on that tractor,” Halberstadt noted.
For his five years, Clyde has been the center of much attention at Circle S, where he greets guests as they arrive and bids them farewell as they depart - in hopes of a treat. Now, he has some competition from Bonnie, a two-year-old female camel, who now resides in the next enclosure. Clyde sometimes gets jealous and wonders why Bonnie is getting attention, but the two have been caught passing the basketball back and forth across the fence that stands between them.
Once Bonnie is of age, which is approximately 3 years for a dromedary camel, the Stapps hope to breed the two and produce Decatur County natives.
Clyde, possibly aware of his celebrity status, sneaks food from the trough across the fence during the winter, when the buffalo take up their cold-weather spot next door. The leader of the buffalo herd will charge Clyde from time to time, but Clyde simply nips at the buffalo’s hump and continues sneaking nibbles of food.
During the summer, the buffalo are relocated further south on the property and the longhorn sheep take up residence next to Clyde, but he sees them as no competition.
This year, Clyde can smell some of his new neighbors, a pair of female elk named Thelma and Louise and a duo of black bear cubs named Yogi and Boo Boo. From atop his long neck, he can see the goats and other animals that live across the walkway from him. In the end, however, he knows that he is the most important one and will happily slobber on anyone who stops within his reach.
Halberstadt noted Clyde is popular among the children who visit the ranch. They often insist upon saying goodbye to him before they leave, as if bidding farewell to the lord of the kingdom - at least in Clyde’s mind.
With a typical life expectancy of 40 to 50 years, Clyde can look forward to many more treats in the years to come as he keeps watch over the comings and goings of all the visitors to his home here in Decatur County.
Stapp’s Circle S Ranch is slated to open for the season on April 1.
