Turkish delight

The west coast of Turkey has a tradition of camel wrestling, which pits champion beasts from local villages against each other in a dusty stadium. But it tends to be as comic as it is exciting, since camels aren8217;t natural-born fighters. They may not wear an elastic singlet or an athletic supporter, and they may have no talent for a full nelson. But camels can wrestle. Disbelievers are invited to visit the Aegean coast of Turkey in the winter, where villages and towns hold camel wrestling matches every weekend. Camel wrestling is an open-air stadium sport pitting two bulls against each other, encouraged by an alluring cow, who8217;s paraded in front of the contestants and led away. The male camels froth at the nose and mouth, and then 8212; if the crowd is lucky 8212; start to fight. The object for a wrestling camel, usually, is to dominate his rival by sitting on him. Usually.

The problem is that camels aren8217;t built for battle. They can be nastily temperamental and prone to using their teeth; but a camel-wrestling match is a struggle for dominance using whatever method occurs to the animals at the time. They are muzzled to avoid bites, but a match might involve growling. Or it might be a chase around the arena. Or it might be a knock-down grudge match8230;

The sport8217;s origins are obscure, but it probably started as a form of competition between nomad caravans in the Middle East. Now the tournaments have been elevated to festivals, with competing camels 8212; some representing whole villages and towns 8212; dressed in knit tapestries and paraded through the streets beforehand to percussive music and bells8230; But a typical match ends when a camel decides he8217;s had enough and runs away, sometimes into the crowd.

Excerpted from an article in 8216;Der Spiegel8217;