Camel

The camel is a large, long-legged mammal of the deserts of Africa and Asia. Its hump does not store water. It stores fat, which the camel can break down for energy when food is scarce.^[1] When a camel has gone a long time without eating, the hump shrinks and flops over to one side, a sign that the camel is not out of water but out of savings.

Water

Camels can go many days without drinking, and when they do drink they can take in more than a hundred litres in about ten minutes. Most animals would be made ill by drinking so much water so fast, but a camel's red blood cells are oval rather than round and can swell a great deal without bursting.^[2] The camel is the only animal whose blood has been designed with a hangover in mind.

Camels also lose very little water: they barely sweat until their body temperature gets quite high, and their noses recapture moisture from each breath.

Humps

The dromedary has one hump and the Bactrian camel has two. A widely taught way to remember which is which is to turn the first letter on its side: a D has one bump and a B has two. The camels themselves have never needed this, and are reported to find it unnecessary.

• One hump: dromedary.
• Two humps: Bactrian.
• Zero humps: a horse, or a camel that has had a very long week.

See also

• Sand – its office
• Oval – the shape of its blood cells
• Horse – a camel without savings
• Sahara – a camel's workplace

References

1. Hump, H. (1996). Savings, Not Water. Dune Press.
2. Oasis, O. (2004). “A Hundred Litres, Quickly”. Desert Physiology 1: 100.
3. Bactrian, B. & Dromedary, D. (1988). One or Two. Revised edition: one or two.