Do Camels Fight over Water?

When caravans pull into a wahah,*

do the camels jostle and kick

to determine who gets to drink first?

Or do they line up, side by side,

and share whatever water is there?

When you think of the camel,

do you picture a bad-tempered beast,

smelly, all legs, obstreperous?

Or is it the ship of the desert you see,

patient, loaded with stored water,

even cute, in an ugly sort of way?

A trip to the Google corner store

reveals that camel-wrestling matches 

(popular in certain quarters)  

take place during mating season,

which factoid could lead you to believe

that the presence of females in heat,

at said wahah, could cause camel fights,

whether over water rights, or not.

Though there’s no clear answer on the ‘Net,

it’s hardly worth a library trek,

not for a stiff-legged old grouch like me,

whose resemblance to dromedaries

is purely coincidental. 

* wahah, Arabic for “oasis”