Many think that to survive in the desert, camels store water in their humps, but this is a bit different from this common view.
Although camels have tricks to make the most of the water they find, their humps are not one of them, as their mission is to store fat.
"They deal with dry seasons when food and water are scarce. When food is available, camels eat enough calories to build their humps so they can survive for long periods of time when food is available," said Rick Schwartz, Animal Welfare Supervisor and National Spokesperson at the San Diego Zoo. "
With a "full" hump, a camel can go for four or even five months without food. When camels consume their fat, their empty humps flounder like a deflated balloon until they eat enough to "inflate" them again.
Young camels are not born with these fatty deposits and do not grow with them during lactation. According to Schwartz: "Young camels begin to wean when they are 4 to 6 months old, although their humps do not begin to form until they are 10 months to a year old,.
There are two types of camels: the two-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus), which lives in parts of western China and Central Asia, and has two humps, and the Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) is the most common and only has one hump. But as far as Schwartz is aware, the extra hump does not allow a two-humped camel to live longer without food.
And although many animals store fat around their stomachs and sides, in camels the fat accumulates vertically in the humps.
And because camel humps store fat that turns into energy, dromedaries need other methods of coping with water scarcity. For example, a camel can drink up to 30 gallons (114 liters) of water at once, pass dry stools to retain water, and its kidneys efficiently remove toxins from the water in the body so they can retain as much as possible, according to Schwartz.
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