Having a love of camels, partly due to having been a camel safari guide in South Africa (many eons ago!), when I met John Hare OBE and heard about the wild camels of Mongolia, I was naturally keen to get on board to try and help raise much needed funds for his Wild Camel Protection Foundation.  (Please do visit www.wildcamels.com for the full fascinating story).

These wild camels, which are separate species from the Bactrian camel, are the 8th most endangered large mammal on the planet and there are only 1000 or so of them left!  They are truly remarkable animals for many reasons, but two that stand out to me are that they are the only animal in the world that survives on salt water (with a higher saline content than that of the sea!), and, living on the nuclear testing sites of China, they have not only survive d 43 atmospheric nuclear tests (many of which were more powerful than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima) but gone on to breed naturally! 

These beautiful animals are utterly unique and John Hare and his team have been working tirelessly since 1997 to bring them back from the brink of extinction.  They now have one full breeding centre with 35 wild camels, from where 10 additional camels have now been released back into the wild.  But as this breeding centre  has now reached capacity - they are trying to establish another one on a second site some 300 miles away. (The distance is important for health reasons).  They have just received permission from the local authorities which is excellent, but now they need to raise much needed funds in order to make this happen.

To try to help, I have drawn one of the wild camels in his natural surroundings of the Gobi Desert.  Both the original drawing and 100 signed, limited edition prints are for sale and all proceeds will go directly to the foundation.  For enquiries on the original please do just contact me.  The prints are £200 each and are 65 x 54 cm (including border). 

Your support means a massive amount.