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For millennia camels have ferried people across the Sahara Desert, carried goods between the oasis towns of Arabia and been the lifeline of nomads living in the Sahel.
But after Brandyn Fouts climbed off the back of Mojave, a 6-year-old dromedary, he echoed one of the reasons the camel hasn’t caught on as North America’s choice beast of burden.
"The hump is not a comfortable seat," he said Saturday.
The 11-year-old Port Orchard boy was one of the first customers to ride Mojave on the first day of Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium camel exhibit. He climbed aboard the sand-colored animal and giggled as a zoo employee led the camel across a patch of woodchips.
Mojave is one of three camels on which zoo customers can ride; Point Defiance is the first zoo in the Northwest to offer such an attraction. The rides will be offered throughout the summer and likely on weekends through September, said Derek Chapin, a visitor services supervisor with the zoo.
Each ride lasts a few minutes and costs $5; three people can ride at once.
"I didn’t know what riding a camel would be like," said 10-year-old Oliver Corcoran of Mercer Island, who rode with two of his friends, Mitchell Meade of Mercer Island and Aksel Hansen of Issaquah. "It was a lot of fun. Camels are cool."
