🐾 Camel

Camel

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Who it is

• Scientific name: Camelus dromedarius (dromedary) and Camelus bactrianus (Bactrian)
• Family & relatives: Members of the family Camelidae, related to the wild Bactrian camel and to South American llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicunas.
• How to spot it: A tall desert mammal with humps on its back; the dromedary has one hump and the Bactrian has two.

Its body & abilities

• Size: About 1.8 to 2 m tall at the hump and 3 m long.
• Weight: Roughly 400 to 700 kg (900 to 1,500 lb).
• Body & adaptations: Its humps store fat, not water, while long lashes, closable nostrils, and wide padded feet suit it for sand and heat.
• Top speed: Can gallop up to about 65 km/h (40 mph) in short bursts and cruise steadily for hours.
• Strength: A powerful pack animal that can carry heavy loads across deserts for days without drinking.
• Senses: Excellent sense of smell and good eyesight, able to detect water and distant vegetation.
• Growing up: A single calf can walk within hours, nurses for over a year, and reaches adulthood around five years.

Where it lives

• Habitat: Deserts and dry grasslands; dromedaries in hot deserts, Bactrians in cold, rocky steppes.
• Where in the world: Dromedaries across the Middle East, North Africa, and feral in Australia; Bactrians across Central Asia.
• Territory: Domesticated herds range with their herders; free-ranging camels roam widely for grazing.

What it eats

• Diet: Herbivore that eats tough desert plants and can go over a week without water, then drink over 100 liters at once.
• Favorite foods: Thorny shrubs, dry grasses, leaves, and even salty plants other animals avoid.
• How it hunts: It browses widely across sparse desert, using tough lips to eat thorny plants others cannot.

How it behaves

• How it moves: Moves with a pacing gait, swinging both legs on the same side together, which gives it a rocking, camel-like walk.
• When it is active: Mostly active by day, foraging in cooler morning and evening hours and resting during peak heat.
• Family life: Social animals living in herds, typically one male with several females and young.
• How it talks: Communicates with a range of grunts, bellows, and moans, plus body posture.
• Babies: After a gestation of about 13 to 14 months the female bears a single calf, which she nurses and protects.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: A grazer of arid lands and vital livestock for people; wild camels face predators like wolves.
• Conservation: Domestic camels are abundant, but the separate wild Bactrian camel is Critically Endangered.
• Dangers: Domestic camels die mostly from disease, drought, and old age; wild ones also from predators.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: About 40 to 50 years, one of the longest-lived domestic mammals.
• In our culture: The iconic 'ship of the desert', central to trade, culture, and religion across Asia and Africa.
• Where to see it: Deserts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Mongolia, plus zoos and camel farms worldwide.
• Fun fact: A thirsty camel can drink about 100 to 150 liters of water in only ten minutes.