Animal World


Do camels store water in their humps?

The hump or humps do not store water, since they are fat reservoirs. The ability to go long periods without drinking water, up to ten months if there is plenty of green vegetation and dew to feed on, results from a number of physiological adaptations. One major factor is that camels can lose up to 40 percent of their body weight with no ill effects. A camel can also withstand a variation of its body temperature by as much as 14 degrees. A camel can drink 30 gallons of water in ten minutes and up to 50 gallons over several hours. A one-humped camel is called a dromedary or Arabian camel; a Bactrian camel has two humps and lives in the wild on the Gobi Desert. Today, the Bactrian is confined to Asia, while most of the Arabian camels are on African soil.

