Camels, uniquely suited to the harsh desert climate, were once called “the ships of the desert,” and my new work in progress, Hard Truths, features a camel-riding scene in the context of an endurance race. So here’s not only Camel Riding 101, but some fascinating facts about camel history, adaptations, and even camel sex!
Camels come in two main flavors, the single-humped dromedary, native to the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, and the two-hump Bactrian camel, from Central Asia. The smaller camelids in the New World include the llama, guanaco, alpaca, and vicuña. The earliest known camel lived in South Dakota 50 million years ago and was the size of a rabbit. The largest ancestor was nine feet tall and lived in the Arctic circle; today’s dromedaries are just over seven feet tall at the hump, with Bactrian camels being a foot taller—this means you’d better be on your camel-riding game!
To ride a camel, the animal first “sits” with its legs bent beneath it. First, throw your leg over your camel and hold on to the saddle horn in front. “Bayokav” is the command to rise. Camels get up rear legs first, so it’s easy to be dumped out of the saddle when everything tips forward; to counteract this, lean way back as the back legs push off. The front legs come up next, and the camel tilts backward, so the rider should lean forward to keep balance. Look at you, seven feet in the air!
Once your camel’s standing, the “giddy-up” equivalent is “Arrrrr.” A camel’s gait creates a back-and-forth sideways swaying that takes some getting used to. Camels can be steered (sometimes) with reins, but are notoriously stubborn. Camels can run up to 40 mph for bursts, and are capable of sustained speeds of 25 mph. A panicked camel will generally slow again before long, but if a rope halter is used, pulling the neck around to one side may make the camel run in a circle. However, a mating bull is capable of lifting another bull weighing 1300 pounds with his neck, making it seem unlikely that a puny human would be able to exert much pull. Another form of camel bridle involves reins attached to a nose peg. If that is used, pulling on the reins too hard can rip the peg out of the muzzle, and any control is lost.
To slow your camel, say “Shhhhhhh” and then “oooch” for “lie down.”
Your camel-riding skills could come in handy in a modern adventure; there are excursions which provide this in some parts of the world, where the camel is still venerated for racing, for transport, and for its by-products of hair for textiles, dung for fuel, and meat and milk.
The camel is a marvel of engineering, however odd-looking. The long double eyelashes and extra eyelid help shut out sand, and the slitted nostrils not only keep out sand but help prevent water vapor loss from respiration. Camels lose only 1.3 liters of fluid a day, compared to 30 or more liters for other similarly-sized mammals. Many of the other attributes are adaptations to extreme heat: the long legs elevate it away from the hot sand and the thick coat helps protect its skin from the sun. A thick pad called the pedestal over the sternum helps elevate the body off the ground, permitting cooling air to circulate beneath. A counter-current heat exchange (a meshwork of arteries and veins in close approximation) helps cool the blood before it reaches the brain. Additionally, a camel’s blood cells are oval rather than disc-shaped; this allows the blood cells to circulate better in states of dehydration, and also makes them resistant to wide swings in osmotic pressure—if a camel has a chance to tank up on water, it can drink 200 liters of water in three minutes!
The most famous heat adaptation is the hump, but it does not “store water” as a physical entity. Rather, the hump is composed of fat (and thus concentrated in one spot, to avoid the insulating properties of fat, unlike cold-water mammals like whales). So how does a fat hump help with water needs? When the fat is metabolized, water is produced: for every gram of fat used, an equivalent amount of water is released. A human who is dieting hard might notice a similar thing; with rapid weight loss, urination is increased.
Camels have a long military history, including one with the U.S. Army! I’ll be posting more on this later.
The sexual behaviors of camels are as unusual as their other characteristics. During the cold months, the males go into rut or “musth,” becoming irascible and potentially dangerous. To attract females, they fling their hormones around, by bringing their tails beneath them, soaking them with urine, and then whipping them up and down. Hubba, hubba! To amp up the sexiness, they inflate a portion of their soft palate, which dangles out the side of their mouths. This dulla resembles a big, pink scrotum the size of an eggplant. The last step to becoming irresistible is to make bubbling sounds to churn their saliva into a white, drippy froth—ooh, baby! Mating itself involves coercing the female to “sit” with the male behind her. Camels are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.
Not exactly sexy? New Heights is free today—that will do the trick instead!
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