CAMELS

CAMEL DROMEDARY

The family of Camelidae contains six species of artiodactyls.  The most familiar are the two species of humped camel; the other four species are South American Llamas and their relatives known as cameloids.

The biggest camelids and the tallest artiodactyls of the Old World’s camels are the Dromedary and Bactrian camel.

The dromedary are the Arabian camels, has one hump on its back and has a height of 2.4m at the shoulder. It is long legged, long-necked has beige or fawn colour and live in North Africa, the Middle East and south-west Asia.

They have been domesticated before 1000 BC. They still are used as transport; for their milk; meat and wool.

The Tuareg, Sahara normads, used to drove huge caravans of camels across the desert carrying ivory, cold, salt and slaves.

Today’s Tuareg rely on their camels when moving camps and transporting water and depend on camel milk for food.

Today are no truly wild dromedaries – most are kept in a semi-wild state or live as feral flocks. The big herds in Australia have been imported and run free in the outback. India has about 1,2 million but well over half of the world’s 12.5 million dromedaries live in Africa.

Most Africa dromedaries are left to roam and forage on their own but depend on humans for water.

CAMEL BACTRIAN

The Bactrian camel is smaller, shaggier and stockier and has two humps. It is a native of Central Asia and has been domesticated for centuries. Only a few wild animals can be found in the deserts of Mongolia and western China.

The domesticated Bactrian is a dark brown to beige, stocky, robust beast with two large humps and beefy legs to carry loads. The wild bactrian camel is long legged and svelte animals with small, pert lumps.

Both species have horny callosities on their chest and leg joints to protect them from the scorching ground when they sit down.

They are only about 1,000 bactrian left in th wild and live in protected areas as the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, Desert of Lop and Takla Makan Desert in China.

In the mating season a bull claims severalf females and fights off any rival. Afterwards he leaves them.

Camels are specially equipped for the desert. The two toes on each foot are joined by a web of skin with a tough pad beneath. When it steps on the sand it splays out preventing the animal from sinking in.

Their blood cells are unique. It carries elliptical red cells instead of by-concave disc-shaped ones. It prevents the blood thickening at hot temperature.

Their hump is not a water storage tank, as widely known, but a fatty reserve for times of food shortage .In dry areas, camels can survive for weeks without a drink. If dew-covered vegetation or succulents are available they do not need to drink at all.

The camel has various water-saving features. The think coat prevents water losses. It can allow its body temperature rise as much as 8C in the heat of the day and cool in the chill of the night. It only starts sweating at 40C and over.

The kidney also function differently. They absorb most of the water taken in and its urine is concentrated and contains very little water. Its dropping is dry.

In the desert’s heat they will lose some water but the camel suffers after losing 40 per cent of their body weight in water.

When there is water the camel drinks buckets of water in a very short time, 100 litres in a few minutes. This gulping down fluid in such a short time would be dangerous for any other animals.