Instead of the camel hunting the Indian, the Indian hunted the camel, as they had learned to love camel steaks and stews. So, whenever an opportunity offered the Apache killed the camels; but the camel soon learned to hate and avoid the Indian, as all living things learn to do. Some were allowed to die of neglect by their drivers; others were surreptitiously shot by the troopers sent to hunt them up when they strayed away -- the trooper claiming to have mistaken the wooly tufts on the top of the twin humps of the camel as they bobbed up and down in the tall sage brush, for the topknot of an Indian, and in self-defense, to have sent a bullet crashing, not into an Indian, but into the anatomy of a camel.

When the Civil War broke out, some 35-40 of the camel band were herded at the United States forts -- Camp Verde, Fort Bliss, Fort Yuma and some of the smaller posts in Texas. When the eastern forts were abandoned by the government, the camels were turned loose to take care of themselves. Those at Fort Yuma and Fort Tejon were taken to the Benicia Arsenal, condemned and sold at auction to the highest bidder. They were bought by two Frenchmen who took them to Reese River, Nevada, where they were used in packing salt to Virginia City. Afterwards they were taken to Arizona and for some time, they were used in packing ore from the Silver King Mine down the Gila River to Yuma, Arizona. But, even the Frenchmen's patience gave out at last. Disgusted with their hunch-backed burden bearers, they turned the whole herd loose upon the desert near Maricopa Wells.

Free now to go where they pleased, instead of straying away beyond the reach of cruel man, the camels seemed possessed with a desire to linger near the haunts of men. They stayed near the line of the overland travel and did mischief. The apparition of one of these ungainly beasts suddenly looming up before the vision of a team of mules frightened the long-eared quadrupeds out of all their senses; so they ran away, scattering freight and drivers over the plains.

The mule drivers, out of revenge, shot the camels whenever they could get in range of them. In 1882 several wild camels were caught in Arizona and sold to a circus, but a few survived to roam at large on the desert regions of Southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. For years afterwards boundary officials would report seeing wild camels on the alkali plains amid sage brush and cactus. These are probably descendants of the imported ones, as those seen appeared to be in their prime.

Occasionally the soldiers in the garrisons of New Mexico and Arizona would catch sight of a few wild camels on the alkali plains. All reports agreed that the animals had grown white with age, their hides having assumed a hard leathery appearance and they are reported to have hard prong hoofs, unlike the cushioned feet of the well-kept camel.