Dromedary camel

Camels eat dry plants, leaves and even thorns.

Their lips are tough and split in two, so they can pick up food. When there is lots of food, the hump gets big.

Dromedaries eat thorny plants, dry leaves, shrubs, dried grasses and salty plants that most farm animals will not touch. Their upper lip is split into two halves that move separately, like fingers, so they can pick food from between thorns.

Like cows, camels are ruminants: they bring their food back up to chew it again. When food is plentiful, a camel stores the extra energy as fat in its hump. When food runs short, it uses up the fat, and the hump shrinks and flops to one side.

Dromedaries are browsers and grazers of arid vegetation, able to live on thorns, dry leaves and saltbush and to endure protein deficiency. The split, prehensile upper lip lets them feed selectively. Like cattle, they are ruminants that bring up and rechew their food, and the gases that come up with it give camels notoriously strong breath.

When food is plentiful, camels 'overeat' and store fat in a single dorsal hump, which sags or disappears when depleted. Britannica notes that keeping fat in one place lets the rest of the body shed heat more easily. Foraging far from water lets camels reach food unavailable to other livestock, which is why, in severe droughts, herders may lose their cattle, sheep and goats while most of their camels survive.

Camels live in herds.

They moan, groan, bellow and hum. A mother and her baby hum to each other. A camel may say hello by blowing in another camel's face.

When they are not penned in, camels live in herds with one grown-up male and a group of females and young. Young males that leave form bachelor herds.

Camels are noisy. They moan, groan, bleat, bellow and roar, and mothers and calves hum to each other. Ears forward means 'I'm alert'. Do camels spit? When upset, a camel can bring up stomach juices with its saliva and spray them out, so it is best to stay calm and give camels space.

Free-living camels form stable groups of females with one mature male, which breeds with all of them; displaced males form bachelor herds. Rival males circle with heads low and try to bite and topple each other, and the winner may rub scent from a gland on the back of its head onto the ground.

Communication uses a wide vocal repertoire, including moans, bleats, bellows and roars, plus postures of the head, neck, ears and tail: ears forward signals alertness, and a tail curled over the back signals submission. The so-called spit is mostly regurgitated stomach contents mixed with saliva, used to startle a threat. Camels are generally docile but may bite or kick when annoyed.

Camels have helped people cross deserts for a very long time.

They carry heavy bags. Families get milk and wool from their camels.

Camels are often called 'ships of the desert'. A dromedary can carry about 100 kilograms for up to 60 kilometers in a day, especially when it travels in the cool of the night. For thousands of years, camel caravans carried goods between trading towns across Africa and Asia.

Many families in desert lands still keep camels for milk, meat, wool and transport. Camel hair makes cloth, and dry camel dung can even be burned as fuel. In some places, camel racing has been brought back as a sport.

Dromedaries made long-distance desert travel and trade possible; caravans helped trading cities grow across North Africa and Asia. Lightly built dromedaries can carry up to about 100 kilograms for 60 kilometers in a day if worked in the cool of night.

Among the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula, the dromedary's native home, camel milk and meat were staples, its hair provided cloth for tents and clothing, and wealth was measured by the number, speed and stamina of one's camels. Camels are still raised for milk, meat and hair across their range, and camel racing has been revived in some areas. In the mid-1800s, camels were even tested as transport in the American West.

Dromedaries are not in danger, because people raise lots of them.

In Australia there are many free-roaming camels. They eat lots of plants and muddy the water holes.

Because people raise millions of dromedaries, the species is not endangered. Its two-humped cousin, the wild Bactrian camel of China and Mongolia, is a different story: the IUCN lists it as Endangered.

In Australia, the problem is the opposite. Feral dromedaries eat more than 80 percent of the plant species available, damage salt lakes, foul water holes that other animals need and can even make sand dunes crumble. The Australian Government has run programs to reduce their numbers, and experts say Indigenous and other landholders must be part of the plans.

Domestic dromedaries are not assessed by the IUCN as a wild species. The conservation concern runs the other way in Australia, where feral camels are an invasive species: they consume more than 80 percent of the plant species available, damage salt lake ecosystems and waterholes and destabilize dunes, with impacts rising sharply above about two camels per square kilometer.

The Australian Government launched a National Feral Camel Action Plan and a four-year control program in 2010, which had reduced numbers to an estimated 300,000 by 2017. Because populations can double in 8 to 10 years, continued management, with consultation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous landholders, is needed. Meanwhile the wild Bactrian camel is listed as Endangered in the IUCN's 2025 global assessment, which estimates only 780 to 1,380 mature individuals in China and Mongolia, still decreasing.