About Bactrian Camels, Two-Humps Mammals Who Like to Wander
About Bactrian Camels, Two-Humps Mammals Who Like to Wander. The Bactrian camel is the name of a type of camel which is easily recognized by its distinctive appearance.
This animal has a long curved neck, brownish fur all over its body, and a double hump on its back. There are two species of Bactrian camels known to man, namely the wild Bactrian camel and the wild Bactrian camel.
About Bactrian Camels, Two-Humps Mammals Who Like to Wander
The Bactrian camel that we usually encounter as pets for humans is the Bactrian camel of the Camelus bactrianus species.
In contrast, wild Bactrian camels are not domesticated by humans and can only be found in the wild, in the Gobi Desert in northern China to be precise.
The common Bactrian camel and the wild Bactrian camel have two humps, but they can still be distinguished.
The common Bactrian camel has thicker fur and a fatter body when compared to the wild Bactrian camel.
The Bactrian camel gets its name from Bactria, a BC kingdom located in Central Asia. The name Bactrian is used to refer to the camel in question because Bactrian camels can indeed be found in the Central Asia region as livestock.
About Bactrian Camels, Two-Humps Mammals Who Like to Wander
The habitat of the Bactrian camel itself is not limited to Central Asia because the camel habitat extends from Turkey in the west, to the Gobi Desert of northern China in the east.
When compared to Camelus dromedarius whose main habitat is desert in the Middle East, Bactrian camels have a much more varied habitat.
The reason is, these animals are known to be able to live in various environments. Whether it's deserts, rocky mountains, even snowy deserts.
Because of their habitat, the Bactrian camel is also known by another name, the two-humped mountain camel.
The Bactrian camel is a herbivorous or plant-eating animal whose main diet is grass and shrubs. However, if plants are difficult to find, Bactrian camels are also willing to eat fish or objects made of animals such as shoes.
Because Bactrian camels have thick lips, Bactrian camels can eat thorns without getting hurt. Like other ruminants, the Bactrian camel has four stomachs to help it digest plant fibers.
Bactrian Camels Videos
In order to make the food they digest more refined, bactrian camels have a habit of directing food from the stomach to the front of the mouth so that it can be chewed more smoothly. The Bactrian Camel can also regurgitate food in its mouth towards enemies for self-defense.
Can endure hunger for months
At the beginning of the article, it was stated that this camel has a pair of humps. The hump itself is not originally filled with water, but rather reserves of fat. When food is hard to find, the Bactrian camel only needs to absorb the fat stores in its hump.
If the Bactrian camel is well fed, the hump will appear straight. However, if the Bactrian camel is starving or malnourished, the hump may appear slightly flattened or bent to the side.
The Bactrian camel is one of the animals with an extraordinary degree of adaptation and endurance. Thanks to its ability to store fat deposits in the hump, Bactrian camels can live for months without food.
The Bactrian Camel can also live for a week without drinking. But once drunk, the Bactra camel can sip water for up to 58 minutes in just a few minutes.
The Bactrian camel can drink not only fresh water. These animals can also meet their fluid needs from eating snow and drinking salt water. Thanks to the special abilities possessed by its kidneys, Bactrian camels can absorb the liquid component of salt water and then excrete the salt through urine.
About Bactrian Camels, Two-Humps Mammals Who Like to Wander
Even though it cannot find water and snow around it, the Bactrian camel can still meet its fluid needs from the plants it eats. Bactrian camels can live in areas as hot as deserts and areas as cold as snowy mountains.
When in a cold environment, the Bactrian camel will be covered in fur or thick, long hair. However, when it is in a warm environment, the coat will become thinner.
Bactrian camels can sweat too, but will usually only sweat when their body temperature rises to 7 degrees Celsius. Like the dromedary camel, the Bactrian camel has also adapted to live in the desert.
The soles of the feet are wide and flat, so the camel can run on the sand without worrying about getting caught or collapsing in the sand.
The eyebrows and lashes are long so this camel can protect its eyes from sandstorms. Bactrian camels can also close their nostrils tightly so that no sand gets into their noses.
Wander together
Bactrian camels have very sharp senses of smell, sight and hearing. By utilizing this acuity of senses, Bactrian camels can communicate with each other.
A Bactrian camel is known to kiss another camel up to 3 kilometers away. Then when they want to communicate by voice, the Bactrian camel will make various sounds such as moans, growls, and squeaks.
Bactrian camels are social animals that live in groups of between 6 and 20 individuals. They have a nomadic lifestyle and can travel long distances to find habitats with an abundance of food.
Bactrian camels that live in the Gobi Desert have a habit of migrating to the rugged steppes in winter. Then when summer comes, they will migrate to desert areas.
There are two kinds of groups of Bactrian camels. The first group consists of a dominant male and several females and their children.
The second group consists of unmarried young male. If a male from outside the group gets into a group consisting of a dominant male and a herd of females, the male group leader will scold and drive the male from outside the group to immediately run away.
About Bactrian Camels, Two-Humps Mammals Who Like to Wander
If the male intruders didn't want to back away, then the two of them would fight each other by biting, spitting, and pushing each other.
The winner will become the leader of the group and have the right to marry a female in the group. And when it comes to mating, the mating season for Bactrian camels in the wild runs from March to April.
Mated female Bactrian camels will enter a gestation period that can last up to one year. A female Bactrian camel will only give birth to one baby per pregnancy.
Newborn babies can walk around in as little as 24 hours from their first birth. The baby will then live on breast milk until the age of two.
As long as the Bactrian camel calf has not yet experienced sexual maturity, the mother Bactrian camel is very protective and does not hesitate to attack other creatures that try to injure their young.
Young Bactrian camels experience sexual maturity at the age of five. If the camel is female, it will remain in the group. However, if the camel is male, it will be issued by the senior male who leads the group.
Between Bactrian Camels And Humans
The Bactrian camel is the largest camel species in the world because it can grow up to 3.45 meters long; It is 2.1 meters tall, and weighs nearly 700 kilograms.
Male camels are usually larger than female camels. In the wild, Bactrian camels can live up to 50 years of age. But Bactrian camels living as pets never exceeded 36 years of age.
It is still unknown what effect humans have on the maximum lifespan of Bactrian camels. The Bactrian camel has long been cultivated by humans. Cave paintings found in Mongolia show that Bactrian camels were domesticated by humans more than 3,800 years ago.
The strong strength of the Bactrian camel and its ability to withstand hunger for a very long time, Bactrian camels are often used as riding animals, transporting goods, and pulling yurts, which are the typical tents of nomadic societies.
According to Marco Polo's records, Bactrian camels were widely used as transport animals by traders on the Silk Road, a trade route that stretched from West Asia to China.
The Bactrian camel to be used for power is usually a male camel which has been castrated at the age of 3 and trained since the age of 4. Apart from being given strength, humans also consume Bactrian camel meat and milk.
Then the fur can be used as a material for making cloth. Bactrian camel dung can also be used as fuel for almost smoke-free campfires.
The Bactrian camel of the Camelus bactrianus species has a very abundant population. In the Gobi Desert alone, there are more than four hundred thousand Bactrian camels inhabiting the area.
However, this is not the case with the Camelus ferus species or wild Bactrian camel which is now categorized as endangered due to its limited number of only around 1,000 and the threat of hunting by local residents.
In order to prevent this species from going extinct, the Chinese and Mongolian governments have created swathes of nature reserves in the Gobi Desert so that wild Bactrian camels can live without disturbance in them. By: Ochie
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