Dromedary

You've got to be kidding: "Stupid camel"! The dromedary is a clever and fascinating animal.

characteristics:

What is inside the hump?
A dromedary uses its hump as fat storage! So a dromedary that doesn't have a hump any longer is undernourished: it has used up its stock in the hump.

Why can a dromedary get by without water for such a long time?
A dromedary lives in the desert where there is only little water. So nature has taken care that the dromedary uses water especially conservatively. The dromedaries draw water from their breath when they exhale by a special system of their noses' mucous membrane. Even their urine and excrement contain only very little water so intensively the dromedary saves! As long as it is cool and it gets juicy food, the dromedary gets by without water for weeks. But when it does drink, an adult animal will swallow 100 to 150 litres of water at a time.

The ship of the desert
Whoever sits on a dromedary for the first time and rides through the desert can sometimes feel nauseated: it swings immensely, you see. That's because of its amble. A dromedary always places the front and hind leg of one side of the body forward at the same time, so it pitches like a ship in the swell.

A real tractor
Pack camels are built a bit more robust and clumsy than the slimmer saddle camels. It is for that reason that such a strong pack camel is able to walk for hours with more than 150 kg on its back. On shorter distances it even manages 400 (!) kg.

A noble trotter
Dromedaries liked to be used as saddle camels. The tall, long,legged animals are fast runners, and therefore, quite sought,after. They are able to walk for hours and can manage up to 80 km per day, but only when they walk. When they gallop, they get tired quickly.