Amazing Facts About Camels

 

 

Camels walk 3 km (1.8 mi) per day looking for food, on average 3 hours, and disperse when food is scarce. They require 10-20 kg (22-44 pounds) of fresh food daily (or 5-10 kg (12-24 pounds) of dry food), depending on the animal's size. If working, the food requirement is of 30-50 kg (70-110 pounds) per day. They spend 8-12 hours per day eating.

Camels eat from small grasses and herbs (Convulvulaceae, Plantaginaceae) to bushes, trees (Acacia) (camels can pick up leaves at heights of up to 3.5 m (12 ft)), and plants growing on salty lands (Chenopodiaceae) and, as a camel's mouth is extremely tough and pain resistant, they can eat easily thorny desert plants, avoided by other animals. Some of their spines so hard they can penetrate through a shoe's sole. Camels literally can survive on plant wastes, like an old twig basket or a mat. Bactrian camels eat wild garlic, saxaul (Haloxylon), and poplar.

Camels can chew gazelle bones (for completing minerals), and even fish waists (especially in Southern Arabia, where fish is abundant). If food has enough moisture, camels can withstand a month without drinking water.

A density of 2-3 kg (4.5-6.5 pounds) of food per hectar means good feeding condition for the camel; 1-1.5 kg (2.2-3.5 pounds) per hectar represent poor feeding conditions.