Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus)
Bactrian camels can store large amounts of fat in their two humps, allowing them to survive periods when food is scarce.
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Bactrian camels
Planet Earth
Surreal images of the last of the truly wild Bactrians in Mongolia's extreme winter.
Earth News
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Wild camels 'genetically unique'
The precarious status of the Bactrian camel has been highlighted by a new genetic study.
About the Bactrian camel
The Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of north eastern Asia. 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.
Nearly all of the estimated 1.4 million Bactrian Camels alive today are domesticated, but in October 2002 the estimated 950 remaining in the wild in northwest China and Mongolia were classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
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Scientific Classification
Order: Even-toed ungulate (Artiodactyla)
Genus: Camelus
Species: Bactrian Camel (bactrianus)
The Bactrian camel is
Adaptation data provided by Animal Diversity Web
Conservation Status
The Bactrian camel is Critically Endangered
- EX - Extinct
- EW
- CR - Threatened
- EN - Threatened
- VU - Threatened
- NT
- LC - Least concern
What's the threat?
The species has suffered greatly at the hands of humans. It has lost habitat to mining and industrial development, and has been forced to compete with introduced livestock for food and water. Farmers hunt the camel for this reason, and many individuals are lost every year when the camels migrate out of protected areas and onto land set aside for grazing. Domestic Bactrian camels are amongst the animals introduced to these areas. They graze alongside reserves containing their wild relatives, and there is much concern that interbreeding and subsequent hybridisation will lead to the loss of the genetically distinct wild camel.
Information about the threat is provided by the Zoological Society of London's EDGE of Existence programme
Elsewhere on the web
- Wild bactrian camel - Camelus ferus (arkive.org)
- Camelus bactrianus (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- IUCN Red List information (iucnredlist.org)
- Ultimate Ungulate fact file (ultimateungulate.com)
- Wild Camels.com: Fact file and research (wildcamels.com)
- Bactrian Camel (wikipedia.org)
- Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) (edgeofexistence.org)
Site links
BBC links
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