How did the camel appear? Two-humped and one-humped camel

Every person knows that a camel is a “ship of the desert.” No one has yet been able to replace this beautiful animal in the vast sandy expanses. The main attribute of a camel is, of course, its hump. Many people mistakenly assume that the camel carries water in it; this is not true. In fact, fat accumulates in the humps (up to 190 kg), which the camel uses if necessary. A camel can exist without water and food long time and feel great, but at the same time he loses up to 40% of his body weight.

There are two types of camels: two-humped (Bactrians) and one-humped (dromedaries). Dromedaries live in Africa, Asia, Arabia, India, and Turkmenistan. They are used for transport in the desert and as a source of meat, wool and milk. Bactrians live in China, Mongolia, Kalmykia, and Kazakhstan. These camels are also used in households.

Camels live about 30-40 years and they live in harems, which makes it much easier to care for their offspring. When it comes to females, these cute animals become very aggressive. But not all camels live in harems; sometimes you can also find solitary camels.

Camels mainly live in deserts, and the question immediately comes to mind: what do camels eat? These animals feed on plants. Moreover, the camel’s body is designed in such a way that this animal can use it as food. thorny plants(for example, camel thorn), inedible for other animals, and even mimosa branches, the needles of which can easily pierce the sole of a boot. Camels can also drink bitterly salty water.

If you cross a Bactrian and a Dromedary, the resulting hybrids are called Nars. Such offspring are stronger and more resilient than their parents.

Perhaps not the best, but still a video about camels.

Bactrians:

CAMELS(Camelus), a genus of mammals of the camelid family (Camelidae) of the order Artiodactyla. Representatives of an almost extinct group of ungulates, which were once widespread throughout the world, except Australia. The closest relatives of camels are the South American llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuna. Currently, the genus is represented by two domesticated species: the one-humped camel, or dromedary ( C. dromedarius), and the Bactrian camel, or Bactrian ( C. bactrianus). They are used as pack and riding animals. The dromedary reaches a height of 1.8 m at the withers and 2.1 m at the top of the hump. Bactrian has shorter legs and is more massive. On average, a camel can carry a load of approx. 180 kg. The camel caravan travels at a speed of approx. 5 km/h and covers about 50 km a day. Dromedar is much faster than Bactrian. With one rider on his back, he can maintain a speed of 16 km/h all day, and his record is 240 km in 11 hours.

Camel humps are composed of fatty tissue and are not supported by any skeletal elements. When the animal is well-fed and healthy, the hump is high and strong; if the camel is emaciated or sick, the hump becomes flabby and may almost disappear (when the fat reserve is exhausted). The camel has a long neck, which gives it the ability to reach grass and other low growing plants that constitute his food. The body is covered with shaggy hair, which becomes long and thick in winter and in cold areas. The nostrils are slit-like, overgrown with hair inside, and can be almost completely closed with them, which makes it possible to filter dust and sand from the air during desert storms. A double row of long, thick eyelashes protects the eye from flying particles. The ears are small, almost invisible.

Camels, like all artiodactyls, have two toes on their feet, but their soles are thick, leathery and there are no horned hooves. Based on this feature, their family is sometimes classified into a special suborder or even the order Callopods. This leg structure is adapted for walking on loose sand and soft snow. Camels are pacers, i.e. When walking, the back and front legs of one side are brought forward at the same time. With this gait, a swaying from side to side, characteristic of a walking camel, occurs.

The camel is a ruminant animal. However, it chews its cud differently than other animals in this group. Its lower jaw makes transverse sweeping movements, constantly throwing the gum from side to side, while other ruminants chew it alternately on one side or the other of the mouth. In addition, unlike them, the upper jaw of a camel is armed with incisors, with which it can bite painfully. An angry camel is known for its habit of spitting foul-smelling gum in the face of its offender.

Camels are famous for their ability to survive without water. However, this is not explained by the water supply in the humps, but by three adaptive features at once. Firstly, in conditions of water shortage, the camel secretes very concentrated urine, retaining moisture in the tissues. The second adaptation concerns the regulation of body temperature. In most mammals, it is normally approximately 38°C and is maintained by two cooling processes: sweating and evaporation of water from the lungs. In both cases, moisture loss occurs. Camels normal temperature fluctuates widely, and only when it reaches 41°C does profuse sweating begin. As a result, the body loses less water. Finally, in most mammals, dehydration causes the blood to thicken. In camels, it is diluted due to the intake of water from other tissues. As a result, normal blood volume is maintained for a longer period, so the cooling processes necessary to maintain performance can continue to operate. It is known that in extreme conditions camels can go without water for up to 34 days. But when it is available, they drink between 19 and 27 liters per day.

Camels do not have a specific breeding season. The female Bactrian bears the fetus for 385 days, the dromedary - 315. The female camel, which weighs approx. 14 kg, born sighted and covered with hair. He almost immediately gets to his feet and is able to reach his mother's nipple. Camels reach sexual maturity at 5 years of age and live up to 40 years.

The camelid family is very ancient. The first of its known representatives appeared in the Eocene (ca. 38 million years ago) in North America. They were quite small, but over the course of evolution, camelids became larger, more numerous and more diverse, spreading across the prairies. In the Pliocene (about 7 million years ago) there were even giant camels, for example Gigantocamelus. By the end of this era, camelids penetrated into Asia along the Bering Isthmus, and into Asia along the Panama Isthmus. South America. During the Pleistocene (ca. 1 million years ago), they spread from Asia west to Europe and south to Africa. During this era, camels were common steppe animals, distributed throughout the world. They remained in high numbers until the end of the Pleistocene, and then quickly became extinct across most of their range, although surviving species lived even in such barren places as the Gobi Desert and the Arabian Peninsula.

Modern camels are descendants of animals that were domesticated during the Babylonian kingdom (1000 BC); they were used before - in Ancient China.

Today at Arab world dromedaries like vehicle mostly replaced by machines and have lost their former economic importance; many of them were slaughtered for meat. However, in Central Asia Bactrians are still widely used, not only as beasts of burden, but also for producing meat, milk, and also spinning wool.

These unusual animals are not like others. Many peoples cannot imagine life without the majestic and strong camels, domesticated many centuries ago. In some countries, the wealth of families is determined by the number of camel herds. For a very long time in the East, camel pack was the standard measure of weight. And old Arabic tales, in which the “ship of the desert” appears in one way or another, are spread all over the world.

The owners of these animals claim that camels are smart and understand humans very well, but each of them has its own character. And some are just terribly stubborn!

Many of us have known since school that there are different types of camels, similar to each other, but also different in some ways. What are they common features and what are the differences?

General characteristics of the family

Of course, the main distinctive feature is the presence of a hump. By the way, it is by this feature that you can easily understand what species a camel belongs to. The camelid family includes several genera that are not camels, but are very closely related to them. All of these animals are mammals. The family belongs to the suborder Callopods. The peculiar structure of the legs is one of the main characteristics of the family. All camelids do not have (functional) hooves, and the underside of the foot is a calloused pad. In some genera it is paired, in others it is not.

Another characteristic feature- long neck. But the most unusual, perhaps, is another feature of camelids, which is not visible to the naked eye. All members of the family have oval red blood cells, rather than round ones, like almost all other animals (and humans).

It is noteworthy that the vast majority of members of the family are excellent swimmers. IN natural environment In the habitat of camels, as a rule, there is a shortage of water; many of them have never seen lakes and rivers in their lives, so the mechanism of this phenomenon is not completely clear.

Prehistoric Alticamelus

These animals, of which today only fragments of skeletons remain, scattered throughout to the globe, were one of the most numerous representatives of " mammoth fauna" The genus included similar species of camels, the names of which were given either by the names of the researchers (for example, Knobloch's camel) or by their habitat (Alexandrian camel).

In total, modern scientists identify up to ten species of extinct camels. All of them were larger than modern ones, had very long necks, in appearance they were somewhat reminiscent of giraffes (but the resemblance is exclusively convergent). Alticamelus were common in the Cenozoic.

Bactrian with two humps

Camel species differ not only in the number of humps, but also in body size. The presence of two humps is the main feature by which you can easily determine that this is a Bactrian, but the height and weight of the animal are also important. larger and heavier than its one-humped relative and all other members of the family included in other genera.

This species tolerates heat well, but it is not afraid of moderate frosts. But high humidity is destructive for Bactrian. It is found in Central and Central Asia, in Mongolia and the neighboring regions of China and Russia. People have bred many breeds of Bactrian, which are widely used in the economy as draft power or Camel meat and milk are very valuable, due to which they occupy an important place in national cuisines many peoples. The thick fur of the Bactrian is of considerable interest. A large number of camels of this species are kept in circuses and zoos.

Khaptagay

Most sources name only such types of camels as one-humped and two-humped. But some scientists are inclined to classify haptagai as a separate species. The version is supported by the results of genetic studies and obvious external differences. Moreover, even the belief that Bactrian descended from the wild haptagai is questioned. Outwardly they are similar. But the wild camel is smaller than representatives of domestic meat breeds.

The subspecies was first described by the famous researcher Przhevalsky. During the time of the scientist, the wild population Bactrian camels was much larger than it is now. Currently, there are only a few hundred haptagai.

All kinds of studies of these animals make it possible to better study them and determine measures that will help maintain the number of livestock. In addition, scientists are trying to establish between Bactrians. Perhaps these are still different types of camels, but at present official science does not recognize this.

Dromedar - ship of the desert

The dromedary camel is common in the Middle East and North Africa, in Asia Minor. He is also unusually hardy, unpretentious, and strong. Man domesticated the wild dromedary camel several thousand years ago, and since then the dromedary has been an integral part of the world order of several nations. Like its two-humped brother, it is of great value on the farm.

Dromedaries are not found in nature. The ancestors of this animal, which did not lend themselves to domestication, became extinct at the dawn of our era. There is information about wild dromedaries, but these are not autochthons, but wild animals that once lived with humans. And such cases are rare. There is no talk of identifying dromedaries that are lost or have run away from home as a separate species.

By comparing the types of camels, photos of which are presented in this article, you can easily identify a dromedary by the presence of a luxurious hump.

Other members of the family

Camels, llamas and vicuñas are the three genera that make up the camelid family. The types of genera are few. The genus of llamas, for example, has only two: the llamas themselves (domestic) and the wild form of the guanaco. The genus vicuña includes one species - vicuñas, very similar to guanacos, but even smaller in size.

Some researchers call the llama and vicuña genera New World camels. They are much smaller than dromedaries and bactrians and do not even have a hint of a hump.

Who is this Nar?

This unusual word unites a huge variety of hybrids of dromedary and bactrian. Received individuals from parents different types, like many other hybrids, are distinguished by excellent health, physical strength and endurance even greater than those of their parents. Nars are capable of producing viable offspring, but the third generation usually produces weak individuals that are of no value to breeders. Nars are crossed with both Bactrians and Dromedars, obtaining good results. Often a hybrid camel calf is born large, grows quickly, and in adulthood is even larger in size than its camel parent.

What types of hybrid camels breeders obtain depends on the purpose. With the help of crossing, they usually try to highlight some characteristic: length and quality of wool, specific amount meat, endurance. There are a huge number of camel breeding schemes. Kospak, zhabray, iner, kuz, kez-nar - this is not a complete list. However, hybrid individuals are not distinguished into separate species or even breeds.

In the wild, this phenomenon does not occur for the reason that the two-humped and one-humped camels have different habitats. It is noteworthy that the bunks always have one hump, but it is formed from two fused ones.

The camel genus (Camelus) is divided into two independent species: Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) and one-humped camels (Camelus dromedaries).
The Republic of Kazakhstan has not only huge areas of natural pasture lands (more than 180 million hectares), but also a wide variety of genetic resources, in the form of individual breeds and populations, as well as interspecific and interbreed crossbred camels. All this diversity must be preserved, especially the Kazakh Bactrian breed, which accounts for almost 90% of all Bactrians in the CIS countries. This breed differs from all other breeds, species and hybrids in its wide breeding range.
In addition to Kazakhstan, this breed is also bred in neighboring countries - Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and in the steppe regions of the Russian Federation.
The specific features of the Bactrian, in addition to two humps, are a long, massive body with relatively short legs and good hair growth, consisting of fine down and awns. It is good hair growth that allows the Bactrian to exist in areas with harsh winters without suffering from the cold.
The facial part of Bactrian is wide in the eye sockets, with relatively short facial bones. The neck is shorter than that of the dromedary, but more arched. Along the upper edge the mane reaches 40-60 cm in males, along the entire lower edge there is a beard, and on the forearms there is a “breeches”. The distance between the bases of the front and rear humps is 20-40 cm. This gap is not filled with fat, even in well-fed camels. The base of the posterior hump ends at the line of the ilium. The shoulders and sacrum are poorly developed.
Bactrians often have such exterior defects in the positioning of the limbs as markings, sunken wrists, closeness of the hock joints, and sabering of the hind limbs. These animals are less adapted to pack caravan service than dromedaries.
Kazakh Bactrians live in Caspian lowland, Aral Karakum, Muyunkum, along the right and left banks of the Syr Darya River. The best camels of this breed are bred in the Ural region. The Kazakh Bactrian is a compact, proportionally built animal, with an elongated body and well-developed muscles of the anterior girdle. Animals are low-legged, with relatively deeper chests.

Milk productivity for the first seven months of lactation is 1200 l, fat content - 6.12%, protein - 3.82, milk sugar -4.98 and ash - 0.95.
The wool clip from breeding males is 10.5-11.5 kg, from queens - 5.4 - 5.7 kg, and for some males the clip reaches 20-21 kg. From young animals 1-2 years old they get 3 - 4.5 kg. The yield of washed wool is 80-90%.
Kalmyk Bactrians- the most valuable of the Bactrian breeds. This is the smallest breed, distinguished by its size, body weight, tall and bony. For example, the champion in live weight camel Beke-Har - exhibit BCXB in 1939 had a mass of 1247 kg.
The head is small, dry, wide in the forehead, with a pointed muzzle. The neck is set large and beautifully curved. The sacrum is wide, somewhat drooping. Live weight, depending on the intrabreed type, ranges from 560 to 718 kg.
The animals feed well, the average daily gain in the spring-summer period reaches 1145 g.
The live weight of a newborn camel is 51 kg, which is 7% of the mother’s live weight.
The musculature of camels is well developed, the humps have large sizes in height and length. The constitution is emphatically dense and dry, in some animals with a slight bias towards tenderness. Among animals of this breed, individuals of white color are more common.

When moving, they surpass other breeds in speed, and in terms of carrying capacity they are not inferior to heavy-duty horses. They are characterized by a clear and correct step and amble.
Kalmyk Bactrians also have good wool productivity and produce wool high quality. From the famous breed champion at BCXB in 1939, Tolga, 21 kg of excellent quality wool were obtained annually. The amount of coarse fibers in the fleece increases with age: in camels they make up from 9 to 16% of the weight of the fleece, in adults - 28-47%. The largest amount of soft wool is in the fleece of young animals at the age of one year. There are more downy fibers in the fleece of queens than in breeders.
The average milk yield of camels of the Kalmyk breed for 18 months of lactation is 1200 l (with fluctuations from 769 to 1717 l) with a milk fat content of 6.9%. IN autumn period milk contains more fat than summer milk.
Mongolian Bactrians- the smallest of the Bactrians, but at the same time they have a well-defined broad-bodied type. They were brought to Kazakhstan in 1936 from Mongolia. Some of the animals that came to the south of the republic for breeding were better conditions cultivation has noticeably changed its appearance. Already the first generation of Mongolian camels was significantly larger than their parents. The Shaulder camel breeding plant, where they were bred, presented best opportunities for raising camels. In particular, the queens were not used for work or milked, and their milk was used to feed suckling young animals. And the vegetation of the pastures in the south of the republic was much more diverse and richer than the deserts of Mongolia. This once again proves that by changing the conditions of detention for the better, you can change the type of animals.

Animals of this breed are distinguished by a thick coat with a significant fluff content. The wool clipping for males is 8.1 kg, for females - 5.2 kg.
Over 17 months of lactation, camels produce 319 liters of milk with a fat content of 5.65%.
The table shows the measurements and productivity of female Bactrians.

Males are somewhat superior to females in terms of measurements and hair clipping.
Dromedaries live in more southern and warmer regions, as they do not tolerate cold winters well. They are bred in the south of Kazakhstan, as well as in Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other countries.
The specific characteristic of the dromedary is the presence of one compact hump, a short body on long legs, and, compared to Bactrians, a weaker coat development. They have light bones and thinner skin.
Dromedaries are faster maturing animals; the pregnancy of the queens is three weeks shorter than that of Bactrians.
The head of the dromedary has elongated facial bones, a convex forehead, a hook-nosed profile, lips are thin and mobile, and do not compress like those of horses and cattle. The lower lip is often drooping, the cheeks are greatly enlarged and a large amount of food is placed between them and the molars. The soft palate can protrude from the mouth and hang down by 30-40 cm. This is observed in males during the period of sexual arousal.
The dromedary's neck has well-developed muscles, is long, and mobile. Their bangs and mane are not developed, the beard grows only in the upper part of the neck, there is no “breeches”, but in the area of ​​the shoulder blade there are “epaulets”, consisting of long crimped hair, absent in Bactrian.
We breed one breed of dromedaries - Turkmen areana. These are large, well-built animals with a deep and wide chest, strong bones and well-developed muscles.

Arvana has good working qualities when used under a pack. Average weight the pack for transportation over a distance of 30-35 km is 240-260 kg, and for long journeys 180-200 kg.
Arvan queens have high milk production. During the first 12 months of lactation, they produce an average of 2000 liters, and from the best up to 3000 liters or more, with a fat content of 4.3%.

Camels (Camelus) are a genus of mammals belonging to the camelid family (Camelidae) and the suborder Camelidae. Large representatives of the artiodactyla order (Artiodactyla) are well adapted for life in arid regions, including deserts, semi-deserts and steppes.

Description of the camel

The weight of an average adult camel varies between 500-800 kg, with a height at the withers of no more than 200-210 cm. One-humped camels are reddish-gray in color, while two-humped camels are characterized by a dark brown color.

Appearance

Camels have curly fur, a long and arched neck, and small, rounded ears. Representatives of the camelid family and the callosopod suborder are characterized by the presence of 38 teeth, of which ten are represented by molars, two canines, ten molars, two molars, a pair of canines and twelve molars.

Thanks to the long and shaggy eyelashes, the camel’s large eyes are reliably protected from sand and dust, and the slits of the nostrils can be closed very tightly if necessary. A camel's vision is excellent, so the animal is able to see a moving person at a distance of a kilometer, and a car even five kilometers away. The large desert animal perfectly smells water and plants.

This is interesting! A camel is able to sense the territory of fresh pasture or the presence fresh water even fifty kilometers away, and seeing thunderclouds in the sky, the desert animal sets off in their direction, hoping to get to a place with pouring rains.

The mammal is quite well adapted to life in harsh and waterless areas, and also has special pectoral, wrist, elbow and knee calluses, which often come into contact with soil heated to 70°C. The animal's fairly thick fur is intended to protect it from the scorching daytime sun and night cold. The fingers connected together form a common sole. Wide and two-toed camel feet are well adapted for walking on small stones and loose sand.

A camel is not capable of losing significant amounts of fluid through natural feces. Moisture, which is released from the nostrils during breathing, easily collects inside a special fold, after which it enters the animal’s oral cavity. Camels are able to do without water for a long time, but in this case about 40% of their water is lost. total mass bodies.

One of the specific adaptations of camels for living in desert conditions is the presence of humps, which are large fatty deposits and serve as a kind of “roof” that protects the animal’s back from the rays of the scorching sun. Among other things, the high concentration of such fat reserves of the whole body in the back area contributes to good heat output. Camels are excellent swimmers, and when moving in water, such animals typically tilt their body slightly to the side.

Character and lifestyle

In the wild, a camel tends to settle down, but such an animal constantly moves across various desert territories, as well as rocky plains or large foothills, trying to stay within large, already marked areas. Any haptagai prefer to move between rare water sources, which allows them to replenish their vital water supplies.

As a rule, camels live in small herds of five to twenty individuals. The leader of such a herd is the main male. Such desert animals are active mainly during the daytime, and with the onset of darkness, camels sleep or behave rather sluggishly and somewhat apathetically. During hurricane periods, camels can lie down for days, and on hot days they move against the wind, which promotes effective thermoregulation, or hide in bushes and ravines. Wild individuals are shy and somewhat aggressive towards strangers, including people.

This is interesting! There is a well-known practice according to which winter grazing of horses is carried out, easily churning the snow cover with their hooves, after which camels are launched into such an area, picking up the remaining food.

When signs of danger appear, camels run away, easily reaching speeds of up to 50-60 km/h. Adult animals are able to run for two or three days until their strength is completely exhausted. Experts believe that natural endurance and large size often cannot save a desert animal from death, which is due to its small mental development.

The lifestyle of domesticated individuals is completely subordinate to people, and wild animals quickly get used to leading a lifestyle characteristic of their ancestors. Adult and fully mature males are able to live alone. The onset of winter is ordeal for camels, which find it very difficult to move on snow cover. Among other things, the absence of true hooves in such animals makes it impossible to dig out food from under the snow.

How long do camels live?

IN favorable conditions camels can easily live for about four decades, but such a significant life expectancy is still more typical for fully domesticated specimens. Among wild haptagai, quite often there are quite large individuals, whose age is fifty years.

Types of camels

The camel genus is represented by two species:

• one-humped;
• two-humped

One-humped camels (dromedaries, dromedaries, arabians) - Camelus dromedarius, have survived to this day exclusively in a domesticated form, and may also well be represented by newly feral individuals. Dromedary is translated from Greek as “running”, and such animals are named “Arabians” in honor of the inhabitants of Arabia who tamed them.

Dromedaries, along with Bactrians, have very long and calloused legs, but with a more slender build. Compared to the two-humped camel, the one-humped camel is much smaller, so the body length of an adult is no more than 2.3-3.4 m, with a height at the withers of 1.8-2.1 m. The average weight of an adult one-humped camel varies at 300-700 kg.

Dromedaries have a head with elongated facial bones, a convex forehead, and a hook-nosed profile. The animal's lips, compared to horses or cattle, do not compress at all. The cheeks are enlarged in size, and the lower lip is most often drooping. Neck dromedary camels distinguished by well-developed muscles.

This is interesting! A small mane grows along the entire upper edge of the cervical region, and on the lower part there is a short beard reaching the middle of the neck. On the forearms the edge is completely absent. In the area of ​​the shoulder blades there is an edge that looks like “epaulettes” and is represented by long curled hair.

Also, one-humped camels differ from their two-humped counterparts in that they are extremely difficult to tolerate even minor frosts. However, the coat of dromedaries is quite dense, but not too thick and relatively short. The fur of a dromedary camel is not intended for warmth and only helps to prevent excessive fluid loss.

On cold nights, the body temperature of dromedary camels drops significantly, and under sun rays the animal warms up very slowly. Most long hair The neck, back and head of the dromedary camel are covered. Dromedaries are predominantly sandy in color, but there are representatives of the species with dark brown, reddish-gray or white fur.

Bactrian camels, or Bactrians (Camelus bactrianus) are the largest representatives of the genus and are the most valuable pets for large quantity Asian peoples. Bactrian camels owe their name to Bactria. This area in Central Asia became famous for its domestication bactrian camel. There are also currently a small number of wild Bactrian camels called haptagai. Several hundred of these individuals today live in China and Mongolia, where they prefer the most inaccessible natural landscapes.

Bactrian camels are very large, massive and heavy animals. Average length the body of an adult individual of this species reaches 2.5-3.5 m, with a height of 1.8-2.2 meters. The height of the animal, including humps, can easily reach 2.6-2.7 m. The length of the tail most often varies between 50-58 cm. As a rule, the weight of a mature Bactrian camel ranges from 440-450 to 650-700 kg. A well-fed male camel of a very valuable and popular Kalmyk breed over the summer can weigh from 780-800 kg to a ton, and the weight of a female most often ranges from 650-800 kg.

Bactrian camels have a dense body and fairly long limbs.. Bactrians are noticeably distinguished by a particularly long and curved neck, which initially bends downwards and then rises again. Due to this structural feature of the neck, the animal’s head is characteristically located in line with the shoulder region. The humps of all representatives of this species are located at a distance of 20-40 cm from each other. The space between them is called the saddle, and is often used as a place for a person to sit.

The standard distance from the interhump saddle to the surface of the earth, as a rule, is about 170 cm. In order for a person to climb onto the back of a Bactrian camel, the animal kneels or lies down on the ground. It should be noted that the space that is located between the two humps of a camel is not filled with fat deposits even in the most mature and well-fed individuals.

This is interesting! Bactrian camels, which have a light coat color, are the most rare individuals, the number of which is no more than 2.8 percent of the total population.

The main indicators of the fatness and health of a Bactrian camel are represented by elastic, evenly standing humps. Emaciated animals have humps that partially or completely fall to the side, so they dangle a lot when walking. Adult Bactrian camels are distinguished by an extremely thick and dense coat with a very well-developed undercoat, ideal for the existence of the animal in fairly harsh continental climatic conditions, characterized by hot in summer and cold, snowy winters.

Notable is the fact that in the habitats familiar to the animal in winter period The thermometer often drops even below minus 40 degrees, but the Bactrian camel is able to safely and easily endure such severe frosts due to the special structure of its fur. The hairs of the coat have internal cavities, which significantly reduce the thermal conductivity of fur. The fine hairs of the undercoat retain air well.

The average length of Bactrian fur is 50-70 mm, and on the lower part of the cervical region and the tops of the humps there is hair, the length of which often exceeds a quarter of a meter. The longest fur grows in representatives of the species in the autumn, so in winter such animals look quite pubescent. In the spring, Bactrian camels begin to molt, and their fur falls out in clumps. At this time, the animal has an unkempt, sloppy and shabby appearance.

The usual color for the Bactrian camel is brown-sand with varying degrees of intensity. Some individuals have a very dark or completely light, sometimes even reddish color.

Range, habitats

Camels of both species are quite widespread only in desert zones, as well as in dry steppes. Such large animals are absolutely not adapted to too wet conditions. climatic conditions or living in mountainous areas. Domesticated camel species are currently common in many areas of Asia and Africa.

Dromedaries are often found in northern Africa, up to one degree south latitude, and also in Arabian Peninsula and in central Asia. In the nineteenth century, such animals were brought to Australia, where they were quickly able to adapt to unusual climatic conditions. Today, the total number of such animals in Australia is fifty thousand individuals.

This is interesting! Bactrians are quite widespread in regions stretching from Asia Minor to Manchuria. There are currently about nineteen million camels in the world, and approximately fourteen million live in Africa.

In Somalia today there are about seven million individuals, and in Sudan - just over three million camels. Wild dromedaries are believed to have gone extinct at the beginning of our era. Their most likely ancestral home was presented southern part Arabian Peninsula, but at present it has not been possible to fully establish whether its ancestors were wild-shaped dromedaries or were a common ancestor with the Bactrian. N.M.

During an Asian expedition, Przhevalsky was the first to discover the existence of two-humped wild camels, the Khaptagai. Their existence was assumed at that time, but was not confirmed, and was therefore disputed.

Populations of wild Bactrians today exist only in the Xinjiang-Uyghur region. autonomous region and in Mongolia. The presence of only three separate populations was noted there, and the total number of animals in them is currently about one thousand individuals. Currently, issues related to the acclimatization of wild Bactrian camels in the conditions of the Yakut Pleistocene park zone are being actively considered.

Camel diet

Camels are typical representatives of ruminants. Both species eat saltwort and wormwood, as well as camel thorn and saxaul. Camels can even drink salt water, and all the fluid in the body of such animals is stored inside the cells of the stomach rumen. All representatives of the callosopod suborder tolerate dehydration very well and quite easily. The main source of water for a camel is fat. The oxidation process of one hundred grams of fat produces about 107 g of water and carbon dioxide.

This is interesting! Wild camels are very cautious and mistrustful animals, so they prefer to die from lack of water or food, but never come too close to people.

Even in conditions of prolonged absence of water, camels’ blood does not thicken at all. Such animals, belonging to the suborder callosopods, can survive about two weeks without water and about one month without food. Even despite such simply amazing endurance, currently wild camels more often than other animals suffer from a noticeable reduction in the number of watering places. This situation is explained by the active development by people of desert areas with the presence of fresh natural reservoirs.