What kinds of camels exist?

These unusual animals are not like the others. Many peoples do not think of life without majestic and strong camels, domesticated many centuries ago. In some countries, the welfare of families is determined by the number of camel flocks. A camel pack for a very long time in the East was the standard measure of weight. And the old Arabian tales, in which the "ship of the desert" somehow appears, are spread all over the world.

The owners of these animals assure that the camels are intelligent, perfectly understand the person, but each of them has its own character. And some are just awfully stubborn!

Many of us still know from the school bench that there are different kinds of camels, similar to each other, but something different. What are their common features and differences?

General characteristics of the family

Of course, the main distinguishing feature is the presence of a hump. By the way, it is on this basis that you can easily understand what kind of camel belongs to. The family of camels unites several genera, which are not camels, but are closely related to them. All these animals are mammals. The family belongs to the group of cloven-hoofed animals and suborder of the corpulent. The peculiar structure of the legs is one of the main features of the family. All camels do not have hooves (functional), and the lower surface of the foot is a calloused pillow. In some genera it is paired, some do not.

Another characteristic feature is a long neck. But the most unusual, perhaps, is another feature of camels that is not visible to the naked eye. All members of the family oval erythrocytes, and not round, like almost all other animals (and in humans).

It is noteworthy that the absolute majority of representatives of the family is excellent. In the natural environment of camels, as a rule, there is a water shortage, many of them have never seen lakes and rivers in their lives, so the mechanism of this phenomenon is not completely clear.

Prehistoric Alticamelus

These animals, from which today only fragments of skeletons scattered around the globe were left, were among the most numerous representatives of the "mammoth fauna". The genus included similar kinds of camels, the names of which were given either by the names of researchers (for example, Knobloch's camel), or by the place of residence (Alexandrian camel).

In total, modern scientists identify up to ten species of extinct camels. All of them were larger than modern ones, had very long necks, externally something resembling giraffes (but the similarity is exclusively convergent). Altikamelus were common in the Cenozoic.

Bactrian with two humps

Types of camels differ not only in the number of humpbacks, but also in body size. The presence of two humps is the main feature by which you can easily determine that you are Bactrian, but the height and weight of the animal are also important. The two-humped camel is larger and heavier than its one-born relative and all other members of the family who are members of other genera.

This kind of excellent heat tolerates, but moderate frosts are not terrible for him. But the high humidity for Bactrian is fatal. It occurs in Central and Central Asia, Mongolia and the bordering regions of China and Russia. People have brought out many Bactrian breeds that are widely used on the farm as a draft force or pack animal. Meat and milk of a camel are very valuable, thanks to which they occupy an important place in the national cuisines of many peoples. Of considerable interest is the thick wool of Bactrian. A large number of camels of this species are found in circuses and zoos.

Haptagai

Most sources call only such kinds of camels, as single-horned and double-humped. But some scholars are inclined to single out Haptagaya in a separate form. In favor of the version speak the results of genetic studies and obvious external differences. Moreover, even the conviction that Bactrian originated from wild haptagaya is questioned. Outwardly they are similar. But the wild camel is smaller than representatives of meat domestic breeds.

For the first time the subspecies was described by the famous explorer Przhevalsky. At the time of the scientist, the population of wild two-humped camels was much larger than now. At present, there are only a few hundred haptagai.

All sorts of studies of these animals allow them to better study them, identify measures that will help preserve the number of livestock. In addition, scientists are trying to establish the degree of kinship between the two-humped. Perhaps, these are all the same different types of camels, but at present official science does not recognize this.

Dromedar is a ship of the desert

A single-breasted camel is common in the Middle East and North Africa, in Asia Minor. He is also extremely hardy, unpretentious, strong. A man domesticated a wild one-horned camel several thousand years ago, since then the dromedary is an integral part of the world order of several peoples. Like a two-humped fellow, he has a huge value in the economy.

In nature, dromedary are not found. The ancestors of this animal, not susceptible to domestication, died out at the dawn of our era. There are reports of wild dromedary, but these are not autochthons, but wild animals that once lived with a man. And the cases are so rare. It is not a question of distinguishing lost dromedaries from the house or leaving them as separate species.

Comparing the types of camels, photos of which are presented in this article, you can easily determine the dromedary by the presence of a luxurious hump.

Other members of the family

Camels, llamas and vicuñas are the three genera that make up the family of camelids. Kinds of genera are few. The genus of lamas, for example, has only two: the lamas proper (domestic) and the wild form of guanaco. In the genus Viku enters and does one species - vicuña, very similar to guanaco, but possessing even smaller dimensions.

Some researchers call the birth of lamas and vikunas camels of the New World. They are much smaller than the Dromedars and Bactrians and do not even have a hint of a hump.

Who is the bunk?

This unusual word unites a huge variety of hybrids dromedar and bactrian. Obtained specimens from parents of different species, like many other hybrids, differ remarkable health, physical strength and endurance even greater than that of their parents. Narts are able to produce viable offspring, but in the third generation, usually weak individuals are born that are of no value to the breeders. Cross bunnies with both the Bactrian and the Dromedary, getting good results. Often, a hybrid camel is born large, grows rapidly, and in size in adulthood is even larger than its parent camel.

What kinds of hybrid camels breeders get depends on the purpose. With the help of crossing, they usually seek to distinguish some feature: the length and quality of the wool, the specific amount of meat, endurance. There are a huge number of schemes for breeding camels. Koppak, gibray, inert, kuz, kez-nar - this is not a complete list. However, hybrid individuals do not separate into individual species and even into breeds.

In the wild, this phenomenon is not found because the two-humped and single-horned camel has a different range. It is noteworthy that the bunks always have one hump, but it is formed of two fused ones.