Negev desert | Music
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| Schwartz: Lawrence of Arabia sang their praises. Alexander the Great possibly wouldn't have been so great without them.
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Suleyman with camels | And Suleyman, well he certainly wouldn't be without his. Camels, that is.
Suleyman: I love them. I love them. It is a hardy animal when it lives in its natural habitat in the desert. But when it's tame - if it's a camel that you feed it gets attached to you, just like any other animal. It gets attached to you, like a dog - like a dog that loves you when you give it food. It's the same with camels.
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Camels in desert | Schwartz: These days, however, not as many Bedouin feel the same way. Once nomads who depended on the camel for transport, food and wealth, today they're trading in the ship of the desert for the car, the corner store and paid employment.
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Schwartz to camera
Super:
DOMINIQUE SCHWARTZ | Traditionally the camel has been bred for its strength and endurance. Take a look at the terrain and it's easy to understand why. In a modern world, however, the camel has become increasingly marginalised. And its existence in the future may well rely on it being bred for something quite different.
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Camel being milked | Camel milk. It's low fat, high protein, and packed with vitamin C. It sometimes even comes with a free workout.
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Camel wrangling | Music |
00.01.32 00.01.46 |
| Schwartz: Professor Reuven Yagil never thought he'd wind up wrangling camels. Then again, this South African born veterinarian also never thought his six month camel research project would turn into a lifelong love affair.
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| Schwartz: Is that a good amount of milk?
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| Yagil: That's just over four litres from one young camel that's just given birth. That's excellent. So she's giving us about just over 10 litres a day.
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Camel eating melon | Schwartz: What hooked the professor was the camel's remarkable ability to survive.
| 01.02.12 |
| Yagil: You can see they love the melons. They absolutely love them, and they love the tomatoes, and they love all the veggies.
| 01.02.18 |
| Schwartz: The camel adapts easily to new foods. Or no food at all. In the severest of droughts, it continues to produce protein-rich milk, which makes it a potential life saver in famine stricken Africa.
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Yagil | Yagil: I would call it as a gift from, you want to call it from God or from nature, it is really a gift for humans.
| 01.02.40 |
| Schwartz: And not just hungry humans. People suffering asthma, diabetes and a myriad of other maladies have wound their way to the professor's door. And found relief or cure, and some side benefits to boot.
| 01.02.50 |
| Schwartz: They say it's also an aphrodisiac. It makes you want to spend more time with your wife.
| 01.03.04 |
| Man: It's much better than Viagra.
Yagil: I tell you, I haven't discovered anything, it all appears in the Koran, |
01.03.19 |
Yagil | and appears everywhere else, that when people were ill and they turned to Allah for help, he said I'll have you the she-camel to drink of its milk. So it's been documented before you can say that.
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Starting generator | Schwartz: While drinking camels' milk is nothing new, what Klara van Creveld does with it - well, that's the real discovery.
| 01.03.33 |
Klara making ice cream | Music
| 01.03.43 |
| Schwartz: With a splash of camel's milk, some minced dates, mango, nuts, or whatever else takes her fancy, a quick mix, and pour, Klara turns out what must be one of the desert's greatest delights - camel milk ice cream. |
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| Not only extremely good for you, it's down right delicious. Richer and sweeter than your regular cow brand.
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01.04.04 |
| Schwartz: Someone had to risk it, George.
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Suleyman with camel | Schwartz: Even Suleyman, the Bedouin camel herder, has to admit, the idea's got legs.
| 01.04.13 |
| Suleyman: We heard, and everyone said it's probably some crazy person who wants to make things from camel milk. Everyone laughed ,because they didn't believe it. But when we saw the he'd actually made ice cream - and when people tasted the ice cream, they did believe that perhaps something could come from this.
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01.04.20 |
Camels under trees | Music
| 01.04.38 |
| Schwartz: Professor Yagil believes the camel is a greatly undervalued resource. I'd have to say I agree. Who would have thought, the Mr Whippy of the desert.
| 01.04.49 |
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Reporter DOMINIQUE SCHWARTZ Camera RON EKKEL Sound YOAV SHAMIR Editor MOSHE COHEN Research DANIEL COHEN
| 01.05.10 |