CAMEL WRESTLING
While the Spanish have bullfights, and the Italians cockfights, and the
English go hunting with hounds, the Turks have camel wrestling. Camel wrestling
is now mostly restricted to the Aegean region
though it was once more widespread in Anatolia.
In the winter you will see elaborately saddled camels being paraded through
the villages with the owner extolling just how his camel is going to make
mince-meat of anyone rash enough to challenge his beast. The camels are
all fully grown bulls specially fed to increase their bulk further, and
the sight of them wrestling one another would seem to promise some spectacular
action.
In reality it doesn't happen and camel wrestling is more akin to comedy
than to blood-sport. Bull camels normally wrestle and butt one another
in a knock-out contest for precedence in a herd, and more importantly,
precedence in mating. In the arena two bulls are led out and then a young
cow is paraded around to get them excited. It's very easy to know when
a bull is excited as streams of viscous milky saliva issue from his mouth
and nostrils. Mostly the two bulls will half-heartedly butt each other
and lean on the other until one of them gives in and runs away. This is
the really exciting bit as the bull will often charge off towards the crowd,
with the conquering bull in pursuit, and the spectators must scramble hurriedly
out of the way. The antics of spectators trying to avoid a thousand kilograms
(nearly a ton) of camel running towards them can lead to pure comedy and
is the best part of camel wrestling. Miraculously there are few accidents.
Occasionally two bulls will get down to it and actually try to wrestle
one another, feinting in here and there, eventually locking a fore-leg
inside the leg of the opposition and leaning on him to topple him over
in a dromedary's version of a wrestling fall and pin.
The sport is a declining one as the cost of keeping, feeding and training
a camel solely for competition doesn't come cheaply, and only a rich man
can afford to do it. Large bets are wagered by owners and spectators alike,
though how you tell just which camel won can be difficult to determine.
What happens when they both run away? - it happens. It's worth going once
just to see and it's quite nice to know that there isn't a lot of blood
and gore involved in the sport, it's really quite gentle.
Today there is a camel wrestling league in the Aegean
region. You can watch the show around Mugla
and in Selcuk, nearby Ephesus.