I was thinking today, for some reason, about the words git and twit, two ancient playground insults which are seldom heard today. A git, I was solemnly told, means ‘a pregnant camel’ while a twit is a pregnant goldfish. …

There are three surviving species of camel. The one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world’s camel population, and the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The Wild Bactrian camel is a separate species and is now critically endangered.

Camels can travel as fast as horses but can also endure legendary periods of time without food or water. Humans have used camels for their wool, milk, meat, leather, and even dung, which can be used for fuel. The dromedary camel, also known as the Arabian camel, exists today only as a domesticated animal.

The length of the oestrus cycle is normally 2–3 weeks (Bodenheimer, 1954; Leonard, 1894), although in the Bactrian camel the period can extend to 30–40 days (Bosaev, 1938).

After a gestation of 12 to 14 months, a mother camel will find a private spot to have her young. Female camels usually only have one baby, but sometimes camels have twins. Baby camels are called calves.

A camel’s hump does not hold water at all – it actually stores fat. The camel uses it as nourishment when food is scarce. The hump is not used for water storage, but camels can go for long periods of time without water. They drink large amounts of water – up to 20 gallons at a time.

During late March, the camels come ashore to lay their eggs.

Dromedary: 15 months

When one of the family’s camels gives a much-labored birth to a rare white calf only to refuse it nursing, the calf’s mournful cry can be felt to the bone. But it’s not just sad–it’s dangerous, jeopardizing the family’s ability to carry on with the help of their animals.

In the deserts of Yemen, Zaraniq tribesmen compete to leap camels in a single bound. Among the members of the Zaraniq tribe on the west coast of Yemen are, apparently, the world’s only professional camel jumpers. “This is what we do,” says Bhayder Mohammed Yusef Qubaisi, a champion bounder.

The Kharai camels of Kutch are the only ones of their kind in the world that can swim. They live with the Jat community, who have been nomadic camel herders for generations, in a beautifully symbiotic relationship.

Yes, horses are faster than camels. But there are some factors to consider, such as the terrain, distance, and health. Racehorses can reach speeds of up to 55 mph if they run on hard ground. Camels, on the other hand, can only go as fast as 22 mph.

Horses shy away from the smell of camels (if they’re not used to it), that’s the basic idea behind it. Horses that didn’t grow up around camels and aren’t used to their scent are scared of them (horses were scared of elephants, too).

88 km/hMaximum, Sprint

A three-humped camel colony was discovered this week in Oman, in the Rub al-Khali desert. The species, whose origin is still unknown, could have appeared as a result of global warming. A hybrid of the two species exists: the Turkoman.

The smell of the camel, according to Herodotus, alarmed and disoriented horses, making camels an effective anti-cavalry weapon when employed by the Achaemenid Persians in the Battle of Thymbra.

cows

Bactrian camels