One-humped camel. Bactrian and one-humped camels The one-humped camel evolved from a wild form

Origin

Once upon a time wild one-humped camel, or dromedary (dromedary) ( Camelus dromedarius ) lived in deserts North Africa and the Middle East, however, only domestic dromedary camels have survived to this day, widely used by humans in Asia and Africa for transporting goods or riding. Surprisingly, the only large population of wild (or rather feral) dromedary camels, numbering from 50 thousand to 100 thousand animals, lives in Australia. The name "dromedary" Greek language translated as "running".

Appearance and features

Many features of this animal indicate its relationship with the Bactrian camel: two toes dromedary covered not with hooves, but with callus pads; its stomach consists of several chambers; and he can also go without water for a long time. However, there are also numerous differences: dromedaries have only one hump and it is significantly inferior in size to Bactrian camels (its body length ranges from 2.3 to 3.4 m, height at the withers - from 1.8 to 2.3 m, weight - from 300 to 700 kg). The tail of the dromedary camel is quite short, no longer than 50 cm, and the body is more slender, with longer legs; top part the head, neck and back are covered with long hair.

Like many inhabitants open spaces, vision plays main role in the life of camels. But their sense of smell is no less developed - apparently, camels are able to smell several kilometers away. The upper lip of dromedaries is forked, the nostrils are slit-shaped and can be closed at will; the eyelids are protected by unusually long eyelashes from sand; there are numerous calluses on the knees, feet and other parts of the body, which protect the camel’s body from burns when it comes into contact with sand and stones hot in the sun. Special mechanisms in the body of dromedaries minimize fluid loss. The dense coat does not allow excessive evaporation, there are very few sweat glands, and animals begin to sweat only in 40-degree heat. During the day, body temperature can reach 41 degrees, at night it drops to 34 degrees; such temperature fluctuations help save up to 5 liters of water. When carrying loads, dromedaries can go without water for a week, and without load for up to 20 days, losing up to 40% of their volume without harming themselves. However, if a camel gets to the water, it quickly compensates for the entire lost volume of fluid, drinking up to 130 liters of water at a time (and it can drink salt water). It is interesting that camels store liquid not in the hump, but in the stomach; the hump contains reserves of fat, which the camel’s body gradually uses for energy. dromedary camel saves every drop of moisture: almost all the liquid is extracted from urine and feces before excretion. In general, it is adapted to a dry climate, perhaps even better than the Bactrian - at least the dromedary camel is common in more southern areas.

Nutrition

A camel eats up to 20 kg of grass, leaves and branches per day, devoting 8-12 hours a day to grazing. He can be content with dry vegetation, as well as vegetation rich in salt; capable of tearing leaves from trees at a height of up to 3.5 m, and on occasion, eats food of animal origin. Dromedary They even readily eat camel thorns, studded with 5-centimeter thorns. Very mobile lips help him carefully pluck and correctly orient thorny branches in his mouth, and chew them without being pricked. Food is swallowed almost unchewed and first enters the anterior stomach, where it is finally digested. This process resembles the process of digestion in ruminant artiodactyls, however, zoologists believe that these two groups of animals developed independently, as evidenced by the presence of numerous glands in the anterior stomach in camelids. Molars in camels grow throughout their lives without forming roots, which is very important when feeding on hard grains.

Social behavior and reproduction

Living in wildlife dromedaries form harem groups numbering from 6 to 30 heads and consisting of one male, females and their offspring of different ages. During the rut, fights occur between males, during which the opponent is sometimes struck fatal bites. During this period, the occipital cutaneous glands of males secrete abundant secretions, and the animals rub the back of their heads against other parts of the body, throwing their heads back. Pregnancy in dromedaries lasts from 360 to 440 days; usually one camel is born, which can already walk by the end of the first day. The camel's milk is very concentrated, and she feeds the baby camel for 7-10 months, although from the age of 3 months he tries plant food. The connection with the mother lasts for a very long time, up to 1-2 years, and young females reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 years, males at 4-6 years.

Domestication

Dromedaries were domesticated by humans no later than six thousand years ago. Domestic dromedaries are distributed from the Mediterranean to equatorial Africa, northern India, Ciscaucasia and Central Asia. In total, there are about 17 million dromedary camels in the world, with more than 50% found in Sudan and Somalia. Maximum speed The dromedary runs at 25 km/h, walks at a speed of about 3.5 km/h and covers up to 40 km per day (in exceptional cases up to 80 km). Weight Limit The load with which a camel can move is 300 kg, usually about 100 kg is loaded on it.

A majestic ship “sails” among the sandy “mountains” of the desert... Who do you think about? we're talking about? Well, of course, about the camel. This animal has long been called exactly that – “ship of the desert.” And there is no longer an animal in the world that can endure the scorching sun, while carrying a heavy load. The two-humped and one-humped camels are truly unique animals of their kind.

Appearance of a camel

Currently, there are two species of these animals preserved on our planet: camels with one hump (dromedaries) and two-humped camels (Bactrians). Externally, they differ not only in the number of humps.

Dromedaries have a slimmer build. They have long legs, thanks to which they are able to run very fast. The height of the average dromedary camel reaches 2.5 meters, and its weight ranges from 300 to 700 kilograms. The coat color of dromedaries is predominantly ash-yellow.

Distinctive features Bactrians are considered, in addition to the presence of two humps: thick wool, higher height (up to 2.7 meters) and weight (up to 800 kilograms), as well as a color that has a gray-yellow tint.

What are camel humps? Contrary to popular belief that the animal has a large supply of water in its hump, it is worth saying that this part of the camel’s body consists of 100% adipose tissue. AND appearance Gorbov speaks directly about physical condition animal. If a camel is in excellent shape, well-fed and healthy, then its humps stick up; when the animal is exhausted or sick, then the hump may sag or disappear completely.

Where do dromedaries and bactrians live?

The habitat of dromedary camels is considered mainly to be Africa. But they can also be found in central Asia. More than 100 years ago, dromedaries were even brought to the Australian continent.

Bactrians are inhabitants of the Asian part of the Eurasian continent. They live in Mongolia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kalmykia.

It is worth noting that camels are becoming less and less common in the wild, as they are being massively domesticated by humans (this is especially true for Bactrians).

Camel behavior and lifestyle

Deserts and semi-deserts with their low trees and thorny bushes are ideal for living and habitat of camels. Camels are sedentary animals, although they are characterized by long journeys within their territories. IN daytime They prefer to lie down for days, chewing gum, and when night comes, they go to bed.

Listen to the voice of a dromedary camel

Camels are very good swimmers, despite their height and weight.

A feature of Bactrians is their frost resistance. Thanks to their thick coat, they tolerate low temperatures(up to minus 40 degrees), but heat and drought are very destructive for them. The same cannot be said about dromedaries: they prefer hot sun rather than cold.

What do two-humped and one-humped camels eat?

Camels are ruminant herbivores. They are unpretentious in food and can feed on the most meager plants, such as bitter herbs, thorny branches, etc. Thanks to its fat reserves in the hump, the animal can do without food for about a month!

Camel breeding

The mating season for these animals begins at winter months(December – February).

Bearing offspring lasts a year, and sometimes several months more. After birth, baby camels feed on their mother's milk. A few hours after birth, the cubs are already standing on their feet and following their mother. Full maturity of the offspring occurs in the fifth year of life. The lifespan of these animals is about 40 – 50 years

Natural enemies of the camel

Usually, none of the animals attacks adults. But the same cannot be said about little camels: they are a favorite object

Dromedary camel (also known as dromedary) was domesticated by humans about 5,000 years ago. Nomadic peoples still use it as a pack, riding and draft animal. Dromedaries provide their owners with milk, meat, wool and skins. Most of them live in a semi-wild state, and in Australia there are feral dromedary camels.

HABITAT

The dromedary is common in North Africa and South-West Asia. Its habitat extends from Canary Islands to India. In the 19th century, European settlers brought dromedaries to Australia, where some of the livestock ran wild. In the rest of the territory, dromedaries are domesticated or live in semi-wild herds belonging to nomadic tribes. The one-humped camel lives in places with a dry climate, where the average annual temperature does not fall below 20 ° C, rainfall is rare and no more than 500 mm per year, clouds of sand and dust are carried in the dry desert air, raised by constantly blowing winds, and the change of seasons is almost not expressed.

LIFESTYLE

The one-humped camel is perfectly adapted to the difficult life in the desert. Thick fur perfectly protects the animal from the heat of the day and the cold of the night. The dromedary saves himself from the dust raised by the wind by tightly closing his nostrils, and his eyes are covered with a fringe of thick and long eyelashes. The soles of the animal's feet are equipped with cushions made of elastic leather, which make walking on loose sand easier. In the desert, a camel moves slowly and in one hour is able to walk or amble about 5 km (ambling is a gait in which the animal simultaneously moves forward both its left and then both right legs). Dromedaries live in small groups. A harem of one and a half dozen females usually gathers around an adult male, sometimes accompanied by older juveniles. There are also groups consisting exclusively of females with camels, and bachelor herds of males. If there is little plant food, the grazing herd scatters across the desert. A camel requires 30-50 kg of food per day, and in order not to live from hand to mouth, it must spend 8-12 hours searching for food. The animal’s diet includes both green ephemerals, which appear only after rains, and all kinds of bindweed, grasses, acacias and salt marsh plants. At times, the dromedary chews the bones of dead animals and fish, in this way replenishing the reserves of calcium and phosphorus in the body. A well-fed camel has an impressive hump filled to capacity with fat and can weigh up to 15 kg. When food becomes scarce, the dromedary lives off the reserves of its “pantry”; Moreover, in the process of chemical breakdown of fat, water, which is so necessary for life, is formed from it.

REPRODUCTION

When female dromedaries come into heat, males become extremely aggressive. They grind their teeth excitedly, salivate profusely and vigorously rub the secretion of the occipital glands into their shoulder blades. During this period, fierce fights often occur between males. Opponents bite each other, strike with their heads and front legs, fighting with equal success both standing and lying down. The winner approaches the female, and she lies down on the ground, showing him her favor. During mating, which lasts 10-20 minutes, the male makes characteristic gurgling sounds. After a 13-month pregnancy, the female gives birth to one camel weighing 25-50 kg. The female most often gives birth while standing. As soon as the baby is born, the mother sniffs him carefully, but does not lick him or eat the placenta, and the newborn immediately tries to get to his feet and find the mother's udder.

A day later, the baby joins the herd and, together with the adults, wanders through the desert. For the first three months, he eats only his mother's milk, and then begins to pluck greens. Camel cubs willingly spend time in games with peers, which often resemble fights between adult males. The mother weans the one-year-old offspring from the udder. He continues to try to suckle for some time, but, as a rule, by this time his mother is pregnant again and unceremoniously drives him away. Females become sexually mature at 3-4 years, and males at 5-6 years. An adult female bears offspring once every two years.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Dromedar is capable of drinking up to 130 liters of water in one sitting and loves to swim in the rain.
  The camel is the only mammal whose body temperature varies depending on the time of day from 34 to 41 °C. When the temperature rises to 40°C, the sweat glands begin to secrete sweat, which cools the animal's body.
• On the bends of the camel’s limbs there are noticeable thickenings of elastic keratinized skin (so-called calluses), the thickness of which reaches 7 mm. When a camel lies on the ground, the calluses protect the most vulnerable parts of its body from injury.
• Over short distances, a camel can gallop at speeds of up to 25 km/h.
• The single hump of the dromedary is analogous to the posterior hump of the bactrian. During embryonic development, the dromedary also develops a second hump, but then disappears before birth.

RELATED SPECIES

The camelid family is represented by 6 species of animals: the dromedary, the Asian Bactrian, as well as the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuna native to South America. All these animals feed on plant foods and are well adapted to the harsh living conditions in mountains and deserts. Their thick wool provides excellent thermal insulation. The closest relative of the dromedar is the Bactrian camel.

Bactrian camel ( Camelus bactrianus ) lives in cold deserts Central Asia. On its back it has two humps clearly separated from each other. These formations, filled with fat reserves, stand vertically, and when there is no food, they fall onto the sides of the animal. The Bactrian's height at the withers reaches 230 cm, and its weight reaches 700 kg. Its legs are shorter than those of a dromedary, and its fur is longer and much thicker.

Thanks to this, the Bactrian camel tolerates significant temperature fluctuations well - from 50 degrees Celsius in the summer to -25 degrees Celsius in the winter. Bactrian is able to go for a long time without water, runs fast and is very hardy. It reaches sexual maturity at 4-5 years and lives up to 50 years.

Scientific classification:

Overkingdom: eukaryotes

Kingdom: Animals

Type: chordates

Subphylum: vertebrates

Superclass: quadrupeds

Class: mammals

Subclass: animals

Infraclass: placental

Order: artiodactyls

Suborder: Callosopods

Family: camelids

Genus: camels

Species: dromedary camel

In the distant past, huge herds of dromedaries roamed the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, but as a result economic activity humans were completely domesticated and are not currently found in the wild, unlike bactriana .

There are several populations of re-feralized dromedaries in North America and Australia, where they were brought as working animals, but later the need for them disappeared, and they were released into the wild, where they took root well.

Well, natural mating occurs mainly in winter and is associated with the rainy season. The duration of pregnancy ranges from 360 to 440 days, after which, as a rule, a single baby is born; Twins are rare. Newborns can walk independently after the first day. The mother takes care of the offspring from one to two years, and the transition from milk to plant foods happens after six months. Two years after giving birth, the female can become pregnant again.

The one-humped camel, or dromedary (lat. Camelus dromedaries) is a cloven-hoofed mammal from the camel family (lat. Camelidae). It was domesticated by humans more than 5,000 years ago. To this day, nomadic tribes and peoples use these animals along with them for transporting heavy loads and riding horses.

Dromedaries provide their owners with meat, milk, warm wool and skins. A large number of camels still live in a semi-wild state, and completely wild specimens live in Australia. At one time the animal is able to drink about 130 liters of water. It can exist for many days without a watering hole, and even a 20% loss of water does not disrupt its physiological processes.

The habitat of dromedary camels extends to Africa and Asia. They were brought to Australia by the first settlers in early XIX century. Some of the animals ran away and went wild. In other territories, camels have been domesticated or live in semi-wild herds.

In the wild, dromedaries inhabit regions with average annual temperature not lower than 20°C and with low precipitation up to 500 mm per year.

Reproduction

During mating season males become very aggressive. They begin to vigorously rub the odorous secretions of the occipital glands into their shoulder blades, grind their teeth and release copious amounts of saliva. At this time, fierce fights often break out between them.

Enraged opponents desperately headbutt each other, hit each other with their front legs and bite. The fight can even take place while lying down. The winner goes to the female, and she lies down in front of him, thus expressing her favor.

Pregnancy lasts 13 months. A baby camel weighing from 25 to 50 kg is born. After birth, the mother carefully sniffs the newborn, but does not lick it, and the baby stands on its legs and immediately begins feeding. The very next day after birth, the cub begins to wander with its herd.

For three months, the baby camel adheres to a milk diet, and then gradually begins to get used to adult food. Most Camel cubs devote their time to playing with their peers. Often these games resemble duels between adult males.

The mother weans the one-year-old cub from the udder, although it still continues to feed on milk. Sexual maturity of females occurs at the age of 3-4 years, and for males at 5-6 years. Once every two years, an adult camel is capable of bearing offspring.

Behavior

The dromedary camel is very well adapted to living in the desert. Its thick coat protects its body well from scorching sun rays and from the night cold. Tightly closed nostrils save the dromedary from dust storm, and his eyes are protected by thick eyelashes.

On the soles of the animal there are pads made of elastic skin, which allow it to easily move on shifting sand. With its leisurely gait, a camel can cover 5 km in one hour.

The dromedary camel is a unique mammal that can change its temperature depending on the time of day from 34°C to 41°C. When the temperature rises to 40°C, the animal sweats, and the sweat cools the entire body.

The single hump is analogous to the posterior hump of Bactrian ( bactrian camel). During embryonic development, the dromedary develops a second hump, but it disappears before birth.

Camels usually live in small groups. Up to one and a half dozen females with juveniles gather around one sexually mature male. Sometimes males gather in bachelor groups, and female camels with their cubs in ladies' groups.

With little food available, the herds disperse across the desert. An animal requires up to 50 kg of food per day, and in order not to starve, it spends up to 12 hours a day searching for food.

Camels supplement their diet with ephemeral plants that grow after rain, all kinds of cereals, bindweeds, acacias and salt marsh plants. To replenish the body with calcium and phosphorus, they chew the bones of dead animals or fish.

A well-fed dromedary has a hump filled to capacity with fat, and its weight can reach 15 kg.

When there is a shortage of feed, he can use his fat deposits, which form water during the process of chemical breakdown.

Description

The body length of an adult reaches 3 meters, the height at the withers is 2.3 m. The head is raised high. The nostrils are located above the eyes. The eyelids are bordered by thick eyelashes that can protect the eyes from sand. Small round ears are buried in fur. The forked upper lip allows you to tear off the branches of thorny plants.

The long neck has a characteristic curve. There is a hump on the back, the size of which is individual for each animal. The color of the thick coat varies from fawn to brown. There are calluses of hardened skin on the sternum and knee joints. The legs are very long and end in a foot with two toes.

The lifespan of a dromedary camel is about 40 years.