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- Wild Bactrian Camel
Wild Bactrian Camel
Artiodactyla, Camelidae
Camelus Ferus
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There are currently about 2 million domesticated Bactrian Camels in the world. The remaining Wild Bactrian Camels are on the brink of extinction because domesticated camels are eating their food.
Total length: 330cm
Tail length: 55cm
Weight: 550kg
(Source: Doubutsu Sekai-isan* Red Data Animals Kodansha) (*World Animal Heritage)
The Wild Bactrian Camel lives only in the Gobi Desert that straddles China and Mongolia.
The Wild Bactrian Camel eats plants, including thorny dry plants that other animals do not eat.
The lumps on their back store fat which they convert into energy when there is no water or food. Burning this fat causes the lumps to sag.
Find out more about the Wild Bactrian Camel!
Domesticated Bactrian Camels make hard workers!
The Wild Bactrian Camel can adapt to all kinds of harsh environments, from heavy snowfall winters to scorching desert summers. They eat thorny dry plants that no other animals eat, and can go on for weeks with just one sip of water. They can also carry heavy loads over long distances, 50 kilometers a day, which is why people domesticated and lived with them for more than 4,500 years. It is said that there are about two million domesticated Bactrian Camels alive in the world today.
Domesticated Bactrian Camel exhausts the food of the Wild Bactrian Camel?!
Meanwhile, it is said that only about 1,000 Bactrian Camels remain in the wild. The wild species are hunted by poachers and have declined in number from food deprivation to the higher population of domesticated Bactrian Camels, cows, and horses. A further threat to the wild species is cross-mating between domesticated and wild Bactrian Camels. The Wild Bactrian Camel is being driven into extinction by the human-raised domesticated Bactrian Camel.
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