Travel Tips

It is very easy to find camel meat in Mauritania, and in a lot of places in the desert, camel meat with onions and couscous or rice will be about the only thing available.
With that, like we farm cows, they in Mauritania farm dromedaires.

Historically, cattle herding was Mauritania's most important economic activity. In the 1980s, with a cattle-to-people ratio of three to one--the highest in West Africa--herding provided subsistence for up to 70 percent of the country's people. Herding has been dramatically affected by chronic drought and the attendant rapid advance of the desert. These events have forced shifts in patterns of movement, herd composition and ownership, and increased pressures on lands also occupied by sedentary farmers in the south.

The drought also caused shifts in the herding of camels (traditionally located in the drier north) and of sheep and goats (held by groups all across Mauritania).

These changes were less dramatic than those for cattle, however, because camels, sheep, and goats are more resistant to drought.

Although decreases in sheep, goat, and camel herd size in drought years could be significant, recovery was more rapid and sustained.

The overall size of camel, sheep, and goat herds may have risen since the 1960s, as these hardier animals have moved into areas abandoned by cattle herds. This pattern seems to have been particularly true for the camel herds.

my friend Sheikh Ndongo when visiting the farm with me.