A camel is one of the oldest animals tamed by mankind. It is believed that he was domesticated about four millennia ago. But for sure, this happened much earlier! With the help of the majestic desert ships, people were able to develop trade, linking different parts of the ancient world among themselves (since camels have a good carrying capacity and phenomenal endurance, which allows you to quickly cross deserted hot deserts, where there is no food or water). Learn about what a camel eats from this article.
Two kinds
The one- humped camel is called Dromedar, the two-humped camel is called Bactrian. The homeland of camels is the Asian and African continents. But with great pleasure they emigrated to Australia, where they settled down just as well. In the world, according to some estimates, more than twenty million of these animals, most of which are dromedaries (which, incidentally, are no longer found in the wild). Two-humped animals live in untamed herds in Gobi (Mongolia). What do camels eat in the desert?
Endurance
The height of some individuals is more than two meters. Weight - over 700 kilograms. With such dimensions, camels have enviable stamina and unpretentiousness. Among them is the ability to do without the use of fluids up to a crescent. But if you are given the opportunity to drink, a camel can drink up to 100 liters of water in one sitting. And this animal, as if created for arid areas, carries on itself a weight equal to half its weight, and can pass in the sand in a day up to 80 kilometers. It's all about the magic humps, which contain stocks. So the question of what camels eat when there is not a blade of grass around can be answered as follows: stocks from their own humps. Moreover, they also indicate a disease state of the animal, or rather its depletion. If the hump is dense and well-fed, then the animal has not yet been hungry. If it falls, it's time to feed the camel, since it most likely has already used up its reserve.
What does a camel eat in the desert?
There are legends about this, more precisely about the food minimalism of the animal. What does a camel eat? Wormwood, hodgepodge, saxaul. Can use sand acacia. Does not disdain fresh or dry grass, depending on the season. All these plants, which ordinary pets don’t eat , are happy to use “sand tamers”. In principle, any greenery and dead wood that grows in arid areas is exactly what a camel eats in the desert. In the most difficult survival conditions, a desert ship may not even eat for two weeks (sometimes up to a month), and also not drink water.
They say that a camel eats with great pleasure a camel thorn. This is a low grass growing in desert areas. She has juicy bright leaves of a rounded shape of green color and prickly branches. With its long roots (up to 5 meters), it reaches underground waters and as a result remains juicy and green even in the dry season.
What does a camel eat in a zoo?
A camel is a ruminant. Due to the difficult digestion of food, he has to chew food twice. The structure of the stomach is similar to artiodactyls (multi-chamber) and allows you to successfully chew and digest even the coarsest food. What does a camel eat in captivity, for example, in a zoo? Like all herbivores, they give him hay, grass, chopped vegetables and fruits, oats, tree branches and shoots. In principle, he eats the same thing as a cow and a horse, only in other, maybe, quantities. Although the stomach of a camel is much more powerful and allows you to digest even paper. As a rule, compassionate visitors and their children feed these animals with everything they bring: bread, pies, carrots, beets, bananas. And camels willingly eat all these dishes. The main thing is that they were of vegetable, not meat origin. It is forbidden to feed the animal with products containing meat, since the stomach of a camel is adapted only to vegetable coarse food. Other products may harm him.
Interesting facts about camels
- Mistakenly, these animals were considered artiodactyls, since they are similar in physique. Now they are singled out in a special detachment of "callopods", because they just do not have hooves. When walking, a camel rests on two supporting fingers. And at the end of the pillow is a small claw that does not perform a supporting function.
- The hair of a camel creates a dense impermeable layer around the body, which is able to isolate the skin from wind and hot air.
- Camels have a wide (compared to other mammals) range of acceptable body temperatures, which are considered normal: from 35 to 40 degrees.
- In many mammals, a temperature deviation of even one degree causes perspiration. Camels do not sweat up to 40 degrees, which allows them to retain moisture additionally.
- Under the same desert conditions, a camel loses three times less fluid than a donkey.
- The nostrils of this animal have a slit-like structure, which allows him to breathe in the conditions of a windy desert and not to expend moisture.