Size: Height: 2 metres at the hump. Weight: 500 to 725 kg.

Habitat and Distribution: Around 650 Wild Bactrian Camels are to be found in the South Eastern part of China (Xingjian), and an estimated 300 in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.

Age: 30 years.

Groups and Breeding: Bactrian Camels travel the desert in groups know as caravans made up of 6 to 20 individuals. These groups are usually composed of either adolescent males, females and their young or females and their young led by a single adult male. Although usually camels are quite placid, during mating season they can become very aggressive. Gestation lasts around 400 days when the female will give birth to 1or 2 young. Young camels are able to stand and walk when they are only a few hours old and will stay with their mother for up to 5 years.

Diet: Bactrian Camels are herbivores and strangely prefer vegetation that is prickly, dry, bitter or salty. When food is scarce they have also been known to eat bones, animal carcasses and even rope, leather and canvas! They can drink salty and brackish water which allows them to survive in the harshest of climates.

• A Bactrian Camel has two humps which are filled not with water but with fat. In times of hardship they can use this fat as both nourishment and convert it to moisture. In addition to this, they can also store around 1.5 gallons of water in special sacks surrounding the stomach.
• If a Bactrian Camel has used up all its excess water, it can drink up to 120 litres in as little as 10 minutes!
• Camels have their own form of sunglasses in the form of bushy eyebrows, and a double row of extra long eyelashes. This protects their eyes from both the sun and any sand in the air. They can also tightly close their nostrils and lips to keep out sand blown around in desert storms.
• They have thick fur and underwool to keep warm during cold desert nights and also insulate against daytime heat, as well as thick padded toes to allow them to walk across scorching, thorny deserts.
• The Bactrian Camels that you see used by humans today and in captivity are domesticated and are smaller than the rare wild ones, which are also genetically different. It is thought that these camels were first domesticated sometime around 2500BC.