World Camel Day: 3 Camel Myths – Busted!

IT’S WORLD CAMEL DAY – yes an actual day dedicated to camels, how cool is that? It’s a really cool thing for us here at Camel Connection HQ – a whole day dedicated to the CAMEL, although if truth be told.... It's not much different to every other day (who's complaining)!

22nd of June is World Camel Day. The day was designed to give recognition to the fact that camels are a very important creatures to many people around the world. Most people rely on camels for their own survival (like us! they have stolen our hearts and taken over our lives - surely that counts)!

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Lets start World Camel Day right with some Myth Busting! Now, you might already know some of these myths, BUT stick with us as we’re pretty sure you’ll learn something new. Here we go…

3 [Busted] Myths About Camels

Biting, spitting, cantankerous creatures, is usually the reply you get from anyone who has had very little contact with camels – surprising how much people know isn’t it? It’s true, it’s the most annoying assumption of all time for the cameleer (that’s  a camel handler / someone who works with camels). Someone bust those myths already! We often wonder where those kind of assumptions come from… “It MUST be the MEDIA (movies and TV shows)…” Poor media always gets the blame. Isn’t it true that when we don’t know much about something that we seem to know MORE, but when we know more we no LESS…? Did we loose you there…? Okay, onto the myths..

Myth #1. Camels Store water in their humps

Okay, so ‘most’ people know this isn’t true… but hang with us, you might learn something new…

As much as this would be quite a wonderful and hilarious site to see a camel wobbling along with a ‘water bed’ arrangement on top of their backs, it’s not true that camels store water in their hump (‘s’ – for the two humpers). Camels are much more amazing than that. A camel’s hump is pure fatty fat fat (yes, we said fat three times). If you’ve ever had a chance to poke a camels hump, it’s solid as a rock (try it)!

MYTH BUSTED: Camel’s store FAT in their humps from drinking AND eating. But wait, there’s more. So how’s that possible? How do they withdraw water from their… F A T (and why on earth can’t humans do that)? Lets get our nerdy scientist glass on and get the know how right here. The fat in the camels hump converts to energy and one of the by products of this energy conversion is H20 (water for those playing at home). A rough estimate is 1 gram of fat can produce 1 gram of h20. This is clever right? But what’s even more cleaver is that the Camel Gods really thought about this one… It’s all well and good to convert fat to energy to water, but the hot desert environments would quickly evaporate the water, right? Then enters the camel's respiratory system which plays a key role in water conservation, as does its unique red blood cells (unique meaning ‘weird and creepy’ and ‘how on earth is that possible without them being from out of space?’). If you really can’t help yourself and you need to know the ins and outs check out the 2 minute animation below which explains how the camels conserves it water. Then…watch it again just to make good sense of it! The best two minutes of your World Camel Day!

Myth #2 Spitting Camels

We’re just going to be upfront here, camels don’t spit they VOMIT! Let us explain in human terms. Have you got one of those friends or relatives who seems to vomit every time they get nervous or scared – or maybe that’s you? Well, you (or your friend / relative) and the camel have something in common! Yep, if a camel is scared they will regurgitate their food and vomit form fear & nervousness. Camels who are poorly treated or misunderstood will tend to ‘vomit’ on the closest thing to them, usually being a homosapien (did you see that nerdy scientist word?). This is a camel’s defence mechanism and “I have no idea what you’re asking of me so I’m just going to vomit” plea.

[caption id="attachment_3093" align="alignnone" width="604"] Inside a camels mouth (FYI the camel was yawing at the time not vomiting)[/caption]

Myth #3 Camels Originated from the Desert

Say what!? EVERYONE knows that camels come from the desert, but you know what, there is some new evidence to prove that camels actually originated from the ARTIC! Yes, the artic (the polar opposite to the desert – literally)! When you think about it, their desert adapted body with water conservation, their feet (think snow shoes), and fat storage capabilities are perfect for the artic environment, or at least they were! Now, I know you weren’t expecting to spend all day learning about camels, buy hey, it’s World Camel Day after all! So, if you’re really keen and or don’t believe us that camels originated from the artic take a look at this video – It’s cameltastic to the extreme!

So there you have it, 3 camel myths busted on Wold Camel Day, June 22nd ! Why not share the camel love and share this post with your friends!? While you're at it comment below if you learned something new on this World Camel Day. And if you’re a real smarty pants and already knew all those myths, brag about it out in the comment below!