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Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month. [19] [39] [123] [124] Camel milk can readily be made into yogurt, but can only be made into butter if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added. [19]
Dromedary camels, bactrian camels, llamas, and alpacas are all induced ovulators. [8] The three Afro-Asian camel species have developed extensive adaptations to their lives in harsh, near-waterless environments. Wild populations of the Bactrian camel are even able to drink brackish water, and some herds live in nuclear test areas. [9]
The common name "dromedary" comes from the Old French dromedaire or the Late Latin dromedarius.These originated from the Greek word dromas, δρομάς (ο, η) (GEN (γενική) dromados, δρομάδος), meaning "running" or "runner", [5] [6] used in Greek in the combination δρομάς κάμηλος (dromas kamelos), literally "running camel", to refer to the dromedary.
The vicuña (Lama vicugna) or vicuna [3] (both / v ɪ ˈ k uː n j ə /, very rarely spelled vicugna, its former genus name) [4] [5] is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes; the other camelid is the guanaco, which lives at lower elevations.
The Bactrian camel shares the genus Camelus with the dromedary (C. dromedarius) and the wild Bactrian camel (C. ferus).The Bactrian camel belongs to the family Camelidae. [1] [5] The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first European to describe the camels: in his 4th century BCE History of Animals, he identified the one-humped Arabian camel and the two-humped Bactrian camel.
Wild Bactrian camels travel over long distances, seeking water in places close to mountains where springs are found, and hill slopes covered in snow provide some moisture in winter. The size of a herd may be as many as 100 camels but generally consists of 2–15 members in a group; this is reported to be due to arid environment and heavy poaching.
A bull camel could be expected to carry up to 600 kilograms (1,300 lb), and camel strings could cover more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) per day. [citation needed] Camel studs were set up in 1866, by Sir Thomas Elder and Samuel Stuckey, at Beltana and Umberatana Stations in South Australia.
Like all camels, Guanacos are herbivores, grazing on grasses, shrubs, herbs, lichens, fungi, cacti, and flowers. [11] The food is swallowed with little chewing and first enters the forestomach to be digested finally after rumination. This process is similar to that of ruminants, to which camels are not zoologically related.