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Bactrian camel walking in the desert

Bactrian camel

Bactrian camels are well equipped with two humps, both of which store large amounts of fat to see them through lean times. They inhabit arid regions and are found along rivers in Siberia during winter, dispersing into the desert when the snow melts in spring. They prefer a diet of plants, but when such nutrient sources are not available these highly adaptable animals will feed on bones, and in extreme conditions may eat rope, sandals and even tents!

Scientific name: Camelus bactrianus

Rank: Species

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Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Bactrian camel taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Bactrian camel can be found in a number of locations including: Asia, China. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Bactrian camel distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Desert Desert
Desert and dry scrubland describes any area that receives less than 250mm of rainfall a year. Not just the endless, baking sand dunes of popular conception, it includes arid areas in temperate regions.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Critically Endangered

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

About

The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large, even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of central Asia. It is presently restricted in the wild to remote regions of the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts of Mongolia and Xinjiang. A small number of wild Bactrian camels still roam the Mangystau Province of southwest Kazakhstan and Nubra Valley in India, and now run wild in Australia. It is one of the two surviving species of camel. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped dromedary camel.

Bactrian camels belong to a fairly small group of animals that regularly eat snow to provide their water needs. Any animals living above the snowline are obliged to do this as snow and ice are the only forms of water during winter, and by doing so their range is greatly enlarged. The latent heat of snow and ice is enormous compared with the heat capacity of water, demanding a large sacrifice in heat energy and forcing animals to eat only small amounts at a time.

Nearly all of the 2 million camels alive today are domesticated. In October 2002, the estimated 800 remaining in the wild in northwest China and Mongolia were classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Some authorities, notably the IUCN, use the binomial name Camelus ferus for the wild Bactrian camel and reserve Camelus bactrianus for the domesticated form.

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