If you had to walk on hot sand with a heavy backpack and no water to drink, how long could you walk? Could you walk for ten minutes? Could you walk for one hour? Could you walk for three weeks? There is one animal that can: the camel!
There are two kinds of camels, the Dromedary and the Bactrian. Dromedary camels have only one hump and Bactrian camels have two. If you turn the letters D and B on their sides, this will help you remember their names.
Dromedary camels live in Arabia, India, and North Africa. There are 13 million Dromedary camels alive today, and all of them are used to carry loads through the desert. Because they are so valuable to humans, there are no more wild Dromedary camels.
Bactrian camels live in China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Scientists are worried because there are not many wild Bactrian camels left in the world. There are only 950 living in the Gobi Desert. Bactrian camels are slower than Dromedary camels, so people prefer Dromedaries.
Do you wish you had a camel? If you do, listen to this. Camels are very difficult pets. They like to bite, spit, and kick people who make them work. Camels eat 12 kilograms of food every day and can drink 114 liters of water in ten minutes! But there are a lot of good things about camels too. Camel milk is very delicious. And camel wool can be made into clothes. If you need to light a fire, you can use camel dung. These three camel gifts help people survive in the desert.
But wait, there is more! Camels are called ships of the desert because they carry very big loads from one side of the desert to the other. Dromedary camels can carry over two hundred kilograms on their backs. Camels walk four kilometers per hour through the hot desert. They can go like this for three weeks without water! That's amazing!
Why don't camels need water? Here's a hint: they don't store it in their humps. Camels do need water, but they save it for long trips. For example, when the weather gets hot, camels don't sweat much. Instead, they let their bodies get warmer.
Even when camels go to the bathroom, they save their water and only lose the waste. A camel can lose up to 40 percent of its body's water before getting sick. Humans can lose only 20 percent. These are just some of the reasons that camels don't need water in the desert.
So what is in the camel's hump? Good question. When camels are not walking, they eat a lot of food. Their bodies turn the food into fat and save the fat in their humps. The fat helps them walk for many weeks without eating. The next time you see a picture of a camel, look at its hump. If the hump is tall, it means the camel is healthy. If the hump is short or falling over, it means the camel needs a vacation and lots to eat and drink!
Camels are amazing animals. They can close their noses in sandstorms. They can eat thorn bushes without hurting their lips. They can live to be forty years old. It's no wonder the Bedouin, the desert people of northern Africa, call camels the gift of God!