Do camel s humps hold the water that helps them survive in the desert

A.� No the camels hump is actually full of fat. In most animals the body's fat is mixed in with their muscle or forms a layer just beneath the skin. But the camel's body fat is stored separately in its hump.

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Q.� So does the hump have any survival advantage for the camel

A.� Yes, in the same that most animals' body fat helps them through lean times. The hump of fat allows a camel to survive up to 2 weeks without food, very important in the camel's natural habitat, the desert, where food is scarce and unpredictable.

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Q.� Does a camel need a lot of water

A.� Yes, it can get through up to 20 litres a day. To help it conserve water a camel can handle jumps in its body temperature without having to resort to sweating to cool down. In fact the camel can handle relatively large swings in its body temperature, from being cool to hot. In comparison an increase of only a couple of degrees is sufficient to kill a human.

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A camel can still survive having lost 40% of its body weight in water. When water is available the camel certainly makes the most of it, drinking up to 60 litres in one go.

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Q.� How much does a camel hump weigh

A.� Up to 35 kilograms. Their overall body weight can reach as much as 1000 kilograms and they can grow over 2 metres high.

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Q.� What do camels eat

A.� They're like goats; they can eat just about anything.

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Q.� I can never remember, which camel has one and which has two humps

A.� They both have two, but the Dromedary's; the so-called one humped camel, front hump isn't developed, so the fully formed rear hump appears to be the only one.

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The easiest way to remember which is which is to the use the shape of the first letter of each camels name as a isual prompt.

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The D for dromedary has only one 'hump' whereas B for Bactrian has two 'humps'.

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by Lisa Cardy