Camel camp in Brewster: rare workshop aids handlers

In movies, camels come across as aloof and unpleasant creatures, spitting, snipping, and resistant to being mounted.

But the educators at Green Chimneys know better.

A decade ago, two camels joined the Brewster nonprofit, which provides educational and clinical services to young people with special needs by connecting them with animals and nature. Last year, Green Chimneys welcomed its third humpbacked friend.

This week, for the first time, Green Chimneys hosted 10 visiting camels for one of the only camel-training programs in the Northeast. The camels came from several states, spanning the East Coast and Midwest, for a workshop teaching their handlers how to train them and have them interact safely with the public.

"We have a lot of different animals but we found the camels offer something unique. Their character is different than the other animals," said Michael Kaufmann, Green Chimneys' director of farm and wildlife. He also leads the Sam and Myra Ross Institute, a training site for human-animal interactions for educational and therapeutic purposes.

Kaufmann first decided to bring camels to Green Chimneys when he saw them in therapy programs in Europe.

Kids connect with the camels in a way they don't with the horses at Green Chimneys, said Samantha Arevalo, Green Chimneys' equine program director. "There's a physical curiosity perspective that camels add to this," she said.

The workshop this week was in response to what Green Chimneys staff says is a demand for camel training, particularly in the Northeast, where they haven't seen a workshop like the one they hosted.

Green Chimneys has found success reaching students with its three camels, who have very different personalities, said Arevalo.

Students gravitate toward the one they connect the most with. Some are drawn to Phoenix, the calmest of Green Chimneys' camels. Phoenix approaches students when they're calm and collected. If they're upset or stressed, Phoenix stands off to the side − a lesson in being aware of emotions, Arevalo said.

"Sometimes just seeing how large a camel is, they can kind of get intimidated by that, but very quickly their curiosity kicks in," Arevalo said.

Brad Pierce and his wife Natalie loaded up their camel, Humphrey, in a trailer and drove 1,300 miles from Minneapolis for the workshop.

The drive was worth it, Pierce said, because of the expertise of the camel trainers convening at Green Chimneys.

"Our side goal is to kind of put a positive spin on camels as an animal. They kind of have a reputation − 'oh, they bite, oh, they spit, oh, they're terrible,' " said Arevalo. "But once you get to know them, they're wise, they're kind, they can connect with you on so many different levels."

At least three of the 10 visiting camels that attended the training this week were there because their handlers have involved or planned to involve them in educational programs or some sort of public interaction.

Humphrey is one of them. Pierce said he and Natalie are new to the camel world. They've had Humphrey almost a year on their farm where the business they run involves having people visit and interact with their animals.

"We wanted to have a good citizen camel, someone that would be a good representative for the species because it's such a unique thing," Pierce said.

"These animals are so incredibly intelligent and so very intuitive," he said. "They really take their cues off of the people that they're around."

Because most Americans don't grow up with access to camels, they assume camels act like horses, said Doug Baum, owner and operator of Texas Camel Corps and a trainer at Green Chimneys' event. But that's not the case.

Horses are motivated by sensing predators, Baum said: "You're mimicking something in nature. A lion, for example, is on the right so your horse will move to the left."

Since camels tend to live in deserts, where they face fewer predators, they aren't as motivated by predation, Baum said.

In other words, if they don't recognize something as a predator, they won't be afraid of it.

"You've really got to learn their behaviors and recognize that they are a different creature," Baum said.

If the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of camels is that they spit or bite, it's because of their portrayal in movies and books, Baum said. People in the U.S. rarely get to see one.

But there's a reason people have relied on camels to carry them and their things for millennia, Baum said: "They're docile, they're gentle and can be trained."