There are two types of camels. There is a dromedary camel, or an Arabian camel, and Bactrian camel. Both of them have some unique adaptations. It is amazing that they live in such harsh climate conditions. Camels are unusual but special animals.
The dromedary camel lives in northwestern India and the lowlands of Afghanistan. Some live in the outside parts of the Arabian Peninsula and Sonila to the south and westward across African deserts. A great number of dromedary camels live in an African desert called the Sahara Desert. The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world. The temperatures where the dromedary camels live can go down to 30 degrees F in the winter. But in the summer, it can withstand temperatures of 125 degrees F. Its climate hardly has any rainfall. It is pretty windy were it lives. There aren't many plants in the desert. It's adapted to live without food or water for days by their humps as a built in food and water supply.
The Bactrian camel lives in a cooler and rockier region than the dromedary camel lives in. It lives in southwestern Mongolia and northwestern China but there are fewer than 1000 in the wild. Half of the Bactrian camels live on rocky plateaus and high altitude mountains. It lives in more extreme temperatures than the dromedary camel. The temperatures can reach arctic cold (below O degrees F) and go up to 140 degrees. There are more plants in the regions where it lives than the dromedary camel. But like the dromedary camel, the Bactrian camel habitats have plains that can go for miles without plants and water. Both of these camels live in some of the most extreme climates of all animals.
The dromedary camel is the camel with one hump. A Bactrian camel has two humps. Each hump rises up to about 30 centimeters (about 1 foot) for both camels. The body of a camel are about 6 to 7 feet to shoulders and weighs 550 to 1,500 pounds. Camels seem larger because of their thick, woolly fur. A dromedary camel has shorter fur than a Bactrian camel to protect its body from heat.
A camel has a lot of amazing adaptations. One is that it can travel and go with little food or water for really long periods of time. It depends on the climate and the time of year. If it's a hot and dry summer, a camel can go with little food or water for a couple days. If it's a cold and windy winter, a camel can go with little food or water for weeks or maybe months. It can go that long with little food or water because of the their humps. Its humps are like a built in food and water supply. They are actually made of fat. They use up the fat as a substitute to food and water when they don't have the food or water.
Another adaptation is the extreme climate they live in. Bactrian camels can live in below zero temperatures in the winter to 140 degrees in the summer. They can live in such cold winters because they have much more fur than dromedary camels. Their fur is thicker too. But the dromedary camels grow very long fur too. Dromedary camels live in a little less extreme temperatures. In winter, they can live in 20 degrees temperatures. Sometimes live in the summer, dromedary camels live in 150 degree temperatures. Both camels can live in such hot summers because they shed the fur in spring when it gets hotter. They hardly have any fur in the summer
Another adaptation is that they have special feet to walk on sand. They have cushion-like pads on their feet so they can walk easily on sand. Even big trucks would get stuck in the sand.
Some other adaptations are on the head. A camel has small, rounded ears located at the back of its head. The ears are covered with hair. The hair protects its ears from flying sand and dust. Its eyes are on the sides of its head. They are protected from the sun with their long, curly eyebrows. Glands supply its eyes with a lot of water to keep its eyes moist. Thick eyelashes protect its eyes from sand.
These are pictures of the two different camels. The dromedary camel (on the left) has one hump and the Bactrian camel (on the right) has two humps.
1. Dagg, Anne Innis, "Camel", 1998 World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia, 525 W. Monroe, Chicago, IL, 1998.
2. Kenworthy, Leonard, Camels and the Cousins, Harvey House, New York, 1975.
3. Microsoft Corp., "Camel", Microsoft Encarta 97, U.S.A., 1993-1996.
Dagg, Anne Innis, "Camel", 1998 World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia, 525 W. Monroe, Chicago, IL, 1998.
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