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A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: gāmāl) is an in the Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been and, as , they provide food ( and meat) and textiles (fiber and felt from ). Camels are especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving of camel. The one-humped makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped makes up 6%. The wild Bactrian camel is a distinct species that is not ancestral to the domestic Bactrian camel, and is now critically endangered, with fewer than 1,000 individuals.

The word camel is also used informally in a wider sense, where the more correct term is "camelid", to include all seven species of the family : the true camels (the above three species), along with the "New World" camelids: the , the , the , and the vicuña, which belong to the separate tribe . Camelids originated in North America during the , with the ancestor of modern camels, , migrating across the Bering land bridge into Asia during the late , around 6 million years ago.


Taxonomy

Extant species
Three species are :


Biology
The average of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult dromedary camel stands at the shoulder and at the hump. Bactrian camels can be a foot taller. Camels can run at up to in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to . Bactrian camels weigh and dromedaries . The widening toes on a camel's provide supplemental grip for varying soil sediments.

The male dromedary camel has an organ called a dulla in his throat, a large, inflatable sac that he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of the camel's mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind. The male usually three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.


Ecological and behavioral adaptations
It is a common myth that a camel stores water in its hump, but the humps in fact are reservoirs of fatty tissue, which can be used as a reserve source of calories, not water. When this tissue is metabolized, it yields a greater mass of water than that of the fat processed. This , while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.
(1971). 9788122412796, New Age International.

Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water.

(1986). 9780174480198, .
The dromedary camel can drink as seldom as once every 10 days even under very hot conditions, and can lose up to 30% of its body mass due to dehydration. They can drink as much as at a time but this is stored in the animal's bloodstream, not, as popularly believed, in its humps.

Unlike other mammals, camels' red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water.

(1999). 9780806131467, University of Oklahoma Press.

Camels are able to withstand changes in and water consumption that would kill most other mammals. Their temperature ranges from at dawn and steadily increases to by sunset, before they cool off at night again. In general, to compare between camels and the other livestock, camels lose only 1.3 liters of fluid intake every day while the other livestock lose 20 to 40 liters per day.Breulmann, M., Böer, B., Wernery, U., Wernery, R., El Shaer, H., Alhadrami, G., ... Norton, J. (2007). "The Camel From Tradition to Modern Times" (PDF). DOHA OFFICE. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a , a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain.Inside Nature's Giants. Channel 4 (UK) documentary. Transmitted 30 August 2011 Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach . Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight in water, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.

When the camel exhales, becomes trapped in their and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.

Camels have three-chambered stomachs and perform rumination as part of their digestive process, even though they are not part of the sub-order.Fowler, M.E. (2010). Medicine and Surgery of Camelids, Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell.

The camel's thick coat insulates it from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. Cited in During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn. The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to .

(2005). 9780521021418, Cambridge University Press (CUP).
Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.

Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their translucent (also known as the nictitating membrane). The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.

(2025). 9780822534341, Twenty-First Century Books. .

The and of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camels' kidneys have a 1:4 to . Thus, the medullary part of a camel's kidney occupies twice as much area as a cow's kidney. Secondly, have a smaller diameter, which reduces surface area for filtration. These two major anatomical characteristics enable camels to conserve water and limit the volume of urine in extreme desert conditions.Rehan S and AS Qureshi, 2006. Microscopic evaluation of the heart, kidneys and adrenal glands of one-humped camel calves (Camelus dromedarius) using semi automated image analysis system. J Camel Pract Res. 13(2): 123 comes out as a thick syrup, and camel faeces are so dry that they do not require drying when used to fuel fires.

The camel differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50 million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs.

The parasite Trypanosoma evansi causes the disease in camels.


Genetics
The of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups,
(2025). 9780471350156, Wiley-Liss. .
but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotype consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The is a small metacentric chromosome, while the is a large metacentric chromosome. The , a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is at the shoulder and tall at the hump. It weighs an average of and can carry around , which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can.

According to molecular data, the wild Bactrian camel ( C. ferus) separated from the domestic Bactrian camel ( C. bactrianus) about 1 million years ago. New World and Old World camelids diverged about 11 million years ago. In spite of this, these species can hybridize and produce viable offspring. The cama is a camel-llama hybrid bred by scientists to see how closely related the parent species are. Scientists from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with injections. The cama is halfway in size between a camel and a llama and lacks a hump. It has ears intermediate between those of camels and llamas, longer legs than the llama, and partially . Like the , camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.


Evolution
The earliest known camel, called , lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the ). It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now .
(2009). 9780802144164, Grove Press.
By 35 million years ago, the was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. The hoofed , which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked evolved in the . The split between the tribes , which contains modern camels and , modern , , vicuñas, and , is estimated to have occurred over 16 million years ago.

The ancestor of modern camels, , migrated into Eurasia from North America via during the late Miocene, between 7.5 and 6.5 million years ago.

9788171336395, Rastogi Publications.
During the Pleistocene, around 3 to 1 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America as part of the Great American Interchange via the newly formed Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to and related animals. Populations of Paracamelus continued to exist in the North American Arctic into the Early Pleistocene. This creature is estimated to have stood around tall. The Bactrian camel diverged from the dromedary about 1 million years ago, according to the fossil record.

The last camel native to North America was Camelops hesternus, which vanished along with , , and , , , and many other megafauna as part of the Quaternary extinction event, coinciding with the migration of humans from Asia at the end of the Pleistocene, around 13–11,000 years ago.

(2010). 9781844076048, Earthscan.
(1999). 9780306460920, Springer.

An extinct giant camel species, Camelus knoblochi roamed Asia during the Late Pleistocene, before becoming extinct around 20,000 years ago.

File:Stenomylus.jpg|alt=A drawing of two early camels| illustration File:NMNH-USNMV16601Stenomylus.tif| skeleton File:NMNH-USNMV15917Poebrotherium.jpg| skeleton File:NMNH-USNM244271 2.jpg| skull File:Camelops hesternus.jpg|alt=| Camelops hesternus, the last true camel native to North America


Domestication
Like , camels originated in North America and eventually spread across to Asia. They survived in the Old World, and eventually humans domesticated them and spread them globally. Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of the first indigenous peoples of the Americas from Asia into North America, 10 to 12,000 years ago; although fossils have never been associated with definitive evidence of hunting.

Most camels surviving today are domesticated. Although populations exist in Australia, India and Kazakhstan, wild camels survive only in the wild Bactrian camel population of the .


History
When humans first domesticated camels is disputed. Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in or sometime during the 3rd millennium BC, the Bactrian in around 2,500 BC,
(1993). 9781564583055, D. Kindersley.
(1990). 9780231072359, Columbia University Press.
—Note that Bulliet has many more references to early use of camels
(2025). 9781575060835, Eisenbrauns. .
as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), . A study from 2016, which genotyped and used world-wide sequencing of modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), suggested that they were initially domesticated in the southeast Arabian Peninsula, with the Bactrian type later being domesticated around Central Asia.

Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that humans had domesticated the Bactrian camel by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the , with the practice then moving into Mesopotamia. Heide suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel", while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to . Heide and Joris Peters reasserted that conclusion in their 2021 study on the subject.

(2025). 9781646021697, Penn State Press. .

In 2009–2013, excavations in the by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones yet found in Israel or even outside the Arabian Peninsula, dating to around 930 BC. This garnered considerable media coverage, as it is strong evidence that the stories of , , , and Joseph were written after this time.

The existence of camels in Mesopotamia and Arabia but not in Syria is not a new idea. The historian thought that although camels were occasionally mentioned in the Bible, this didn't mean that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that time. The archaeologist William F. Albright, writing even earlier, saw camels in the Bible as an .

The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph says:

The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the ... substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112–116; Jasmin 2005). This ... has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558–584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early (not before the 12th century BC)

and concludes:

Current data from copper smelting sites of the enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BC and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region—attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh —raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade.

File:Camel cart.JPG|alt= A camel harnessed to a cart loaded with branches and twigs|A camel serving as a in (2009) File:A camel with its rider playing kettle drums..jpg|alt= A painting of a man sitting on a camel and playing the drums|A camel in a ceremonial procession, its rider playing , (c. 1840) File:Negev camel petroglyph.jpg|Petroglyph of a camel, , southern (prior to c. 5300 BC) File:Bartholomeus Breenbergh 002.jpg| Joseph Sells Grain by Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1655), showing camel with rider at left


Textiles
Desert tribes and Mongolian nomads use camel hair for tents, , clothing, bedding and accessories. Camels have outer guard hairs and soft inner down, and the fibers may also be sorted by color and age of the animal. The guard hairs can be felted for use as waterproof coats for the herdsmen, while the softer hair is used for premium goods.
(1995). 9789251037591, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. .
The fiber can be spun for use in weaving or made into yarns for hand knitting or crochet. Pure camel hair is recorded as being used for from the 17th century onwards, and from the 19th century a mixture of wool and camel hair was used.
(2025). 9781847887382, Bloomsbury. .


Military uses
By at least 1200 BC the first camel saddles had appeared, and could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500 and 100 BC, Bactrian camels came into military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC the military Arabian saddle evolved, which again improved the saddle design slightly.
(2025). 9780500051306, Thames & Hudson.

Military forces have used in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and their use continues into the modern-day within the Border Security Force (BSF) of . The first documented use of camel cavalries occurred in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC.

(2025). 9780313333484, Greenwood Publishing Group.
(1972). 9780761815204, University Press of America. .
Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.
(2006). 9781894384018, Heritage House Publishing Co.

The East Roman Empire used auxiliary forces known as , whom the Romans recruited in desert provinces.

(2007). 9780195328783, Oxford University Press. .
(1991). 9781855321663, Osprey Publishing.
The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close range (horses are afraid of the camels' scent), a quality famously employed by the Persians when fighting in the Battle of Thymbra (547 BC).


19th and 20th centuries
The United States Army established the U.S. Camel Corps, stationed in , in the 19th century. One may still see stables at the in Benicia, California, where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum. Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success (John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.

France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed.

(2011). 9781107002876, Cambridge University Press. .
The Free French Camel Corps fought during World War II, and camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.

In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the , but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.

In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in , Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.

(2025). 9780813123837, University Press of Kentucky. .
(2006). 9780275986018, Greenwood Publishing Group. .

The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.

(2004). 9781419147999, Kessinger Publishing.

Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region. At the same period the Soviet units operating around in 1942 adopted local camels as draft animals due to shortage of trucks and horses, and kept them even after moving out of the area. Despite severe losses, some of these camels ended up as far west as to Berlin itself.

The Bikaner Camel Corps of fought alongside the British Indian Army in World Wars I and II.

The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today ). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.


21st century competition
The annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is held in Saudi Arabia. In addition to camel racing and camel milk tasting, the festival holds a camel "" with prize money of $57m (£40m). In 2018, 12 camels were disqualified from the beauty contest after their owners were found to have injected them with . In a similar incident in 2021, over 40 camels were disqualified.


Food uses
Camel meat and milk are foods that are found in many cuisines, typically in Middle Eastern, North African and some Australian cuisines. Camels provide food in the form of meat and milk.Tariq, M., Rabia, R., Jamil, A., Sakhwat, A., Aadil, A., & Muhammad S., 2010. Minerals and Nutritional Composition of Camel (Camelus Dromedarius) Meat in Pakistan. Journal- Chemical Society of Pakistan, Vol 33(6).


Dairy
Camel milk is a of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month.
(1975). 9780231072359, Columbia University Press. .

Camel milk can readily be made into , but can only be made into if it is soured first, churned, and a is then added. Until recently, camel milk could not be made into because was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of . Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet in the 1990s. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant.

Camel milk can also be made into .


Meat
Approximately 3.3 million camels and camelids are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh , while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to . The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between . The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy. The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel.
(2025). 9781897959435, Serif.
On the other hand, camel milk and meat are rich in protein, vitamins, glycogen, and other nutrients making them essential in the diet of many people. From chemical composition to meat quality, the dromedary camel is the preferred breed for meat production. It does well even in arid areas due to its unusual physiological behaviors and characteristics, which include tolerance to extreme temperatures, radiation from the sun, water paucity, rugged landscape and low vegetation.Aleme, A., D., 2013. A Review of Camel Meat as a Precious Source of Nutrition in some part of Ethiopia. Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology Research. Vol. 1, No. 4, December 2013, PP: 40–43. Available online at . Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough, although camel meat becomes tenderer the more it is cooked.

Camel is one of the animals that can be ritually slaughtered and divided into three portions (one for the home, one for extended family/social networks, and one for those who cannot afford to slaughter an animal themselves) for the qurban of .

The Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste. In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare from camel meat. Specialist camel butchers provide expert cuts, with the hump considered the most popular. Anyone for camel meat? One hump or two? , Word of Mouth

Camel meat has been eaten for centuries. It has been recorded by writers as an available dish at banquets in ancient , usually roasted whole. The emperor enjoyed camel's heel.

(2006). 9780192806819, Oxford University Press, US.
Camel meat is mainly eaten in certain regions, including , , , , , , , , , , and other arid regions where alternative forms of protein may be limited or where camel meat has had a long cultural history. Camel blood is also consumable, as is the case among pastoralists in northern , where camel blood is drunk with milk and acts as a key source of , , salts and minerals.

A 2005 report issued jointly by the Saudi Ministry of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details four cases of human resulting from the ingestion of raw camel liver.

Camel meat is also occasionally found in Australian cuisine: for example, a camel is available in . Australia has exported camel meat, primarily to the but also to Europe and the US, for many years. The meat is very popular among East African Australians, such as , and other Australians have also been buying it. The feral nature of the animals means they produce a different type of meat to farmed camels in other parts of the world, and it is sought after because it is disease-free, and a unique genetic group. Demand is outstripping supply, and governments are being urged not to cull the camels, but redirect the cost of the cull into developing the market. Australia has seven camel dairies, which produce milk, cheese and skincare products in addition to meat.


Diseases
Camels occasionally suffer from a devastating and fatal neurological disease known as . Camel owners employ a traditional, empirical method, which lacks scientific validation, to treat this condition. In this method, camels are forced to swallow a and then provided with only for an extended period. The Hiyam disease can be transmitted to humans through the consumption of camel meat. Https://www.dnaindia.com/web-stories/viral/why-camels-eat-live-snakes-1738134093861< /ref>


Religion

Islam
consider camel meat (, 'allowed'). However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform (ablution) before the next time they after eating camel meat. Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it (, 'forbidden') for a Muslim to perform in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of the Shaytan (, ''). According to (d.798), the may be used for medical treatment if necessary, but according to Abū Ḥanīfah, the drinking of camel urine is discouraged.
(1994). 9780292790766, University of Texas Press. .

Islamic texts contain several stories featuring camels. In the story of the people of , the prophet miraculously brings forth a naqat (, '') out of a rock. After migrated from to (the ), he allowed to roam there; the location where the camel stopped to rest determined the location where he would build his house in Medina.Campo, Juan Eduardo (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. p. 128.


Judaism
According to tradition, camel meat and milk are not . Camels possess only one of the two ; although they , they do not have : "But these you shall not eat among those that bring up the cud and those that have a cloven hoof: the camel, because it brings up its cud, but does not have a completely cloven hoof; it is unclean for you." http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9912#v=41

The Palestinian Muslim in Yatta, who claim descent from Jews, reportedly avoid eating camel meat, a practice cited as evidence of their Jewish origins.


Cultural depictions
What may be the oldest carvings of camels were discovered in 2018 in Saudi Arabia. They were analysed by researchers from several scientific disciplines and, in 2021, were estimated to be 7,000 to 8,000 years old. Saudi Arabia camel carvings dated to prehistoric era , BBC, September 15, 2021 The dating of is made difficult by the lack of organic material in the carvings that may be tested, so the researchers attempting to date them tested animal bones found associated with the carvings, assessed erosion patterns, and analysed tool marks in order to determine a correct date for the creation of the sculptures. This dating would make the carvings significantly older than Stonehenge (5,000 years old) and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza (4,500 years old) and it predates estimates for the domestication of camels.

File:Shadda (detail), Karabagh region, southwest Caucasus.jpeg|Shadda (cover,detail), Karabagh region, southwest Caucasus, early 19th century File:Vessel in the Form of a Recumbent Camel with Jugs, 2015.65.15.jpg|Vessel in the form of a recumbent camel with jugs, 250 BC – 224 AD, File:Brooklyn Museum - Maru Ragini (Dhola and Maru riding on a Camel).jpg| Maru Ragini ( Dhola and Maru Riding on a Camel), c. 1750, File:Brooklyn Museum - The Magi Journeying (Les rois mages en voyage) - James Tissot - overall.jpg| The Magi Journeying ( Les rois mages en voyage)—James Tissot, c. 1886, File:KiplingCamel3.gif| How the Camel Got His Hump (From 's Just So Stories)


Distribution and numbers
There are approximately 14 million camels alive , with 90% being dromedaries. Dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in the Horn of Africa, the , , and ). The Horn region alone has the largest concentration of camels in the world,
(2025). 9780802144164, Grove Press.
where the dromedaries constitute an important part of local nomadic life. They provide nomadic people in Somalia and Ethiopia with milk, food, and transportation.
(1987). 9789171062697, Nordic Africa Institute.
Plain text version.

Over one million dromedary camels are estimated to be feral in Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This population is growing about 8% per year; it was estimated at 700,000 in 2008.

(2025). 9781741580945, Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre.
Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.

A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwestern United States after having been imported in the 19th century as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and exported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.

The Bactrian camel is, , reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, most of which are domesticated.

(2010). 9780307716255, Random House Digital, Inc.
The Wild Bactrian camel is the only truly wild (as opposed to feral) camel in the world. It is a distinct species that is not ancestral to the domestic Bactrian camel. The wild camels are critically endangered and number approximately 950, inhabiting the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in China and Mongolia.


See also

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading


External links

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