Cairo: A camel owner in Saudi Arabia has bought a pricey brand necklace for the animal to enhance its beauty, according to a social media video.
The camel is seen in the footage with the Van Cleef necklace dangling from the neck as its owner (unseen) is filming the animal to the tune of a popular Saudi song praising the wearer's beauty.
Some commentators estimated the price of the gold necklace at SR28,000. The video did not name the generous owner or his exact location.
In recent years, the camel business has remarkably grown in the kingdom. There are around 1.8 million camels with a market value of over SR50 billion in Saudi Arabia, according to official figures.
The animal has long been dubbed the “ship of the desert”, being the lifeline for desert dwellers.
The kingdom annually hosts the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, the world’s biggest pageant, organised by the Saudi Camel Club.
Last year, Saudi Arabia started a project for documenting strains of camels, using DNA tests to preserve rare species of the animal. Registration, conducted on an ad-hoc portal, entails different data on camels including the DNA.
The Saudi Camel Club, which oversees the project, said each applicant among camel owners gets an ID card for the camel. Documenting camels aims to preserve famous and rare species of camels by setting up a DNA-based database.
The portal comprises data of camel owners, allowing them to browse and get electronic documents on their animals. The documentation project also issues a serial number for each camel registered in the database linked to a chip attached to the animal’s neck containing related data including ownership and a veterinary record.
