The 4 weirdest things about animals and the old West (including camels)

Horses get most of the press when it comes to animals and the old West. But they weren’t the only animals to roam the range. These four animal stories show that the West did a lot more than saddle up, and when it comes to animals, the West wasn’t only wild. It was weird.

1. Camels roamed the wild West

Have you heard about the U.S. Camel Corps?

Before the Civil War, an ambitious Quartermaster major named Henry Wayne proposed that camels could help the military, and the idea had legs (and, presumably, humps). Camels were valuable because of their endurance, proven ability to transport heavy loads, and experience in desert climates. So in 1855, Congress let Secretary of War Jefferson Davis buy some camels.

The camels were brought over, but the Civil War delayed the plans (as did, presumably, the departure of Secretary Davis to the Confederacy). Most of the camels were sold to zoos and carnivals, but some weren’t.

That’s where the weird part comes in. A few camels were abandoned in the Southwest and, for years, wild camels roamed the plains. It wasn’t common to see a camel out in the wild, but it wasn’t unheard of, either. The last wild camel was spotted near Douglas, Texas as late as 1941.

2. Buffalo bones were a booming economy

You may know that settlers slaughtered tens of thousands of buffalo, eventually bringing the beasts to extinction. But the insatiable desire for buffalo skins isn’t the weirdest thing about buffalo and the old West. For that, you have to look to bones.

The problem? Settlers killed so many buffalo that their bones were everywhere. But those bones were still useful for gelatin and for use as fertilizer, so homesteaders collected the bones and formed a vast bone-trading economy. One trader estimated that $40 million worth of bones passed through processing plants.

The bones from buffalo slaughter were so common that the streets of Topeka, Kansas were “paved with buffalo skulls.” The economy didn’t last long, however, because the buffalo became incredibly rare. By 1907, they were already collectors’ items.

3. The ringtailed cat was the West’s weirdest pet

What do you get when you take a raccoon and give it feline flavor? The ringtailed cat—the old West’s most unusual pet.

Found in the West, the ringtail was easily tamed and used by miners and settlers to chase mice. At the time, it was often called a “miner’s cat.”

Some miners kept traditional domesticated cats as well, but the ringtailed cat was uniquely suited to exterminate rodents. Miners cultivated the furry friends by letting them live in warm boxes near the stove.

4. Bears and bulls fought to the death (for entertainment purposes)

It’s no secret that cowboys liked to entertain themselves in unusual ways. That included having bulls and bears fight.

As described in Entertainment in the Old WestMexican cowboys initially brought bullfights and rodeo to the West for entertainment. From there, Westerners decided to bring bears into the mix.

Grizzly bears were used in the fights and chained down with about 20 feet of chain to work with. Then, a bull was driven in to attack the bear. In case you were curious, the fighting style of bears and bulls is where the terms bull market and bear market probably come from. As Western spectators observed, a bear fights by dragging its opponent down while a bull fights by goring up.

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