Why does a camel need humps? Why does an elephant need a trunk? Why does a rat need a long tail? There are many questions that can baffle even highly educated people. In this article, we will try to answer one of them. In particular, here you will find many interesting and unexpected facts about camels and their humps.
Camel photo and background
Many animals have learned to adapt to difficult environmental conditions. In particular, to an acute deficiency of moisture. The most striking example is camels, or "ships of the desert", as they are also called.
These mammals are able to stay in a hot and arid climate for a long time without losing their efficiency. How do they do it? And why are camels humpbacked? The answers to these questions, by the way, are interrelated. But more on that later. First, let's get to know this amazing animal in general terms.
Camel is a fairly large mammal from the artiodactyl order. It lives in deserts, semi-deserts and dry steppes of Asia and Africa. In captivity (eg.zoos) is also found in the temperate zone. The average weight of an adult animal is 600-800 kg, the height at the withers is up to two meters. The color of the fur is brown or reddish-gray. Camels were domesticated 4,000 years ago. Since then, they have been actively used by humans to transport goods and passengers.
The most interesting facts about camels
- A camel has 38 teeth.
- These animals are excellent meteorologists. They can figure out the area where it will soon rain.
- All camels are excellent swimmers, although they rarely manage to demonstrate this talent in life.
- In a day, a camel can cover huge distances (up to 80-100 km).
- The largest population of these animals recorded in Somalia - 7.7 million individuals.
- One camel can carry half its body weight.
- In some countries, camel meat and milk are eaten.
- The United Arab Emirates hosts an annual camel race.
- The average life expectancy of one camel is 45 years.
Why does a camel need humps?
Now let's move on to the main issue of our article. So, why does a camel need humps? What function do they serve?
As you probably already guessed, it is the humps that help the camel to do without water and food for a long time. They, like a gas tank in a car, feed the animal during long transitions through the lifeless desert. But do not think that these unusual outgrowths on the back containwater. In fact, camel humps are filled with fat, which, when oxidized, produces water. It nourishes the animal's body.
The famous writer Rudyard Kipling answers the question “why does a camel need humps?” in his own way. In one of his tales, he describes the camel as an incredibly lazy animal. And for this idleness, the almighty Jinn “rewarded” him with a hump, uttering the following words: “This is because you skipped three days. Now you can work for three days without any food.” Of course, this is just a children's story.
One-humped and two-humped camels
There are two varieties of these mammals:
- Bactrian camels (or Bactrians).
- One-humped camels (or dromedaries).
The first live in Central Asia. Bactrians are well adapted to an arid and sharply continental climate, which is characterized by hot summers and cold winters. In addition to two humps, they also differ from dromedaries in having thicker and longer hair on the body.
One-humped camels are common in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Unlike the Bactrians, there are no wild populations of this species left today. Only in the deserts of the central part of Australia can one find secondarily feral representatives of dromedaries - the descendants of those individuals that were brought to this distant continent at the end of the 19th century. Dromedars differ from Bactrians in their longer and slender legs.
Why do some camels have two humps, while others have only one? Scientists are not yet able to answer this question. It is known that initially mother nature conceived exactly two humps. But then in some individuals of the genus they merged into one. Thus, single-humpedness is a later evolutionary acquisition. However, why the camels needed it is unknown.
How long can a camel go without water?
How long do you think a camel can go without water? The answer is impressive: up to 15 days. And without solid food - about a month. True, after this, the camel will need several days of rest and good nutrition. In addition, after such a long hunger strike, the animal can drink up to one hundred liters of water at a time!
By the way, by the appearance of the hump, you can determine how long its owner is starving. So, in a well-fed and drunk camel, the outgrowth on the back stands straight, and in an emaciated one, it hangs to one side. The fact is that there are no bones and joints in camel humps. Therefore, when the animal's fat supply dries up, its humps decrease in size and sag.
Thus, a camel can live without water for several weeks. And without significant harm to your he alth. In this he is helped not only by humps, but also by other opportunistic "life hacks". For example:
- Camels control their breathing rate to minimize moisture loss from the body.
- Thick fur protects the body of the animal from both the scorching heat and the cold of the night.
- Fluid is also stored in special water-bearing sacs of the stomach, which further helpscamel to fight dehydration.
- Moisture exhaled from the camel's nostrils is trapped in special sinuses and then enters the mouth.
Features of food
What does a camel eat? This is another interesting question worth answering. Camels are ruminants. In their natural habitat, the diet of these animals includes over 50 different plant species. Most often they eat camel thorn, wormwood, saxaul, blackberry, double leaf, s altwort, sand acacia. Once in an oasis, a camel is not averse to feasting on juicy reed shoots or tree leaves.
The stomach of camels is perfectly adapted to the digestion of rough and prickly food. It consists of several departments: scar, abomasum and mesh with cellular folds. The walls of the first two sections are covered with a layer of rough epithelium. Food through the esophagus first enters the scar, where it is crushed. Then she burps back into the mouth, chews again and returns to the scar again. Only after that, well-chopped food enters the stomach mesh, where it begins to be digested.
In captivity, camels are usually fed hay, twigs and oats, sometimes vegetables and buckwheat. "Domestic" camels are also given s alt bars, as these animals need a constant source of rock s alt.
In conclusion…
Well, now you know why a camel needs humps. Nature, as you know, does nothing for nothing. And eachthe animal created by it is maximally adapted to the environmental conditions in which it is forced to exist. By the way, camel humps not only nourish the camel for many days, but also protect its internal organs from overheating.
