Bactrian camel

Ship of the desert

A camel's humps store fat, not water! Thanks to that fat it can walk for 2 weeks without food. A camel can drink 100 litres of water at once — that's 300 glasses! It has long eyelashes and nostrils that close — it keeps walking even in a sandstorm. In the Kyzylkum Desert, camels still help people today.

The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is adapted to the cold deserts of Central Asia; it is named after ancient Bactria (today's Surkhandarya and Afghanistan). Its humps hold up to 36 kg of fat as an energy store; it survives 10 days without water and longer without food. It drinks 100 litres in 10 minutes, and its cells don't burst even when its blood thins. Two rows of eyelashes and closable nostrils protect it from sand. It endures +40 °C in summer and −30 °C in winter. It was the main transport of Silk Road caravans. The wild species (Camelus ferus) numbers fewer than 1,000 in Mongolia and China (CR).

Fun facts

• A camel drinks 100 litres of water in 10 minutes.
• When a hump runs out of fat, it flops over to one side.
• A single Silk Road caravan could have up to 1,000 camels.