Camels are very important animals to us, as they provide transportation through the most vicious climates. They can endure extreme cold, up to -40 degrees in the winter, and over 115 degrees in the summer. This allows us to use them in virtually any environment. But were focusing on how they can store water for such long periods of time without dying. How do they do this? Many people think that the humps on the camel’s backs are filled with water, and they use the stored water to help them survive long summer and winter days. This is actually completely untrue, a myth you could call it. Let’s find out what the humps are really filled with that enables the camel to endure so long without water.
The humps on the camels backs are actually made of………. Fat!
The camels use this fat for nutrients when water and other resources in the desert are scant and unattainable. In a healthy camel, they’re hump or humps (depending on whether it’s a Dromedary camel that has one hump or a Bactrian camel that has two) can weigh up to an astonishing 80 pounds! Not only that, how long these humps can carry the camel is amazing to. During the cold winter months, camels can survive up to 7 months without physically drinking water. Imagine not drinking from New Year’s Day all the way up to the end of summer, that’s what camels are capable of doing. Lastly, if a camel hasn’t drunk anything for a long period of time, you can physically see the humps go down and get smaller until eventually there’s nothing there. Then when the camel finally does drink, the humps start to go back to their normal size.
That is just the winter months, but the summer months are a completely different story. During summertime in the desert, when the temperatures soar to a sizzling 120 degrees, camels can endure up to 2 long weeks without drinking water. That’s incredible considering that they have hair and that it’s still hot at night, usually around 100 degrees even after the sun goes down. Also, once the camel does have to drink, it can consume an unbelievable amount of water. In ten minutes, they can drink up to 30 GALLONS of water. That’s 240 pounds in enough time that we can take a shower! And in one “sitting” they can drink up to 50 gallons, or 400 pounds of water.
The last adaptation that camels have to further abstain drinking water is they can withstand a huge body temperature change in order to survive. When it’s hot outside they can elevate they’re body temperatures up to 107 degrees, and during the night they can drop it all the way down to 97 degrees. This allows them withstand extreme heat, and extreme cold without having to use water to keep their bodies in control and normal.
I thought this to be very interesting. but how is it that the water increases the size of the hump but fat is whats in side it?
ReplyDeletebecause as the camel goes longer and longer without drinking, the fat builds up and creates the hump so the camel can survive
ReplyDeletejust so everybody knows, i wrote this article about camels, but i didnt have an account yet when i wrote it, so i emailed it to mr.hammer so he could post it for me. thats why it says posted by hammer
ReplyDeletegood to know
ReplyDeleteThis was a awesome post, it's really amazing that camels can do that kind of stuff.
ReplyDelete