Species profile: Dromedary camel

Hello again, welcome back to animals under threat. Today, we will be covering the Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius).

The Dromedary camel is a large even-toed ungulate belonging to the order Artiodactyla and is well known for the single hump on its back. It is the tallest out of the 3 surviving species of camel and is mostly active during the day with the exception of the hottest hours around the middle of the day. The Dromedary camel is characterized by its long curved neck, brown coloured coat, narrow chest, long hairs on the throat, shoulders, and a single hump made up of fat bound together by fibrous tissue (SeaWorld. Org). This camel is also called the Arabian camel and is considered to be a domesticated animal in North Africa, south-western Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Herd of camels by Wilson

The Dromedary camel has special adaptions to survive living in desert conditions as water availability is scarce. It has the ability to close its nostrils in order to kept out sand and conserve water. The camel’s kidneys are specialised to minimise water loss through excretion and can also converse water by fluctuating their temperature to reduce perspiration (Irwin, 2010). The camel’s padded hooves are designed to support the camels weight on the sand, but it is not suited for slippery and muddy terrain. These camels live in small-medium herds made up of females following a dominant male searching for desert vegetation to eat (Irwin, 2010).

Kidney by Wagner Souza e Silva / Museum of Veterinary Anatomy and footprint by unknown.

This camel species is considered to be a multipurpose animal as they are used for milk, meat, wool, transport and racing. Herd management is used to select which camels are for meat and ones used for milking. Camel wool is popular for countries that experience cold winter and also use for fibre as cashmere. Camels used for transport in desert areas than horses as they are better adapted to the climate and landscape, this also applies to camel racing (Faye, 2015). Camels are susceptible to diseases such as Brucellosis. Brucellosis is caused ingestion of unpasteurized milk or undercooked meat that leads to night sweats, muscle pain, liver inflammation and death. Dromedary camels are considered to be a possible host for Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus or “MERS-CoV”. Both diseases are considered to be zoonotic and dangerous to humans (Al-Salihi, 2016).

Next time, we will be covering a hippopotamus species that is critically endangered and under threat from loss of habitat.

References

Al-Salihi, K. 2016, "Observations on dromedary (Arabian camel) and its diseases Mirror of Research in Veterinary Sciences and Animals (MRVSA) Journal homepage: http://mrvsa.com/ E-ISSN 2307-8073; 2520-324X (Print)", Mirror of Research in Veterinary Sciences and Animals, vol. 5, no. Special issue, pp. 1-10.

Faye, B. 2015, "Role, distribution and perspective of camel breeding in the third millennium economies", Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 318-327.

Irwin, R. 2010;2012;, Camel, 2010th edn, Reaktion Books, Limited, London;Chicago;.

https://seaworld.org/animals/facts/mammals/dromedary-camel/

picture reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromedary