Camel how long without water

The ancient camel question is: One hump or two? Arabian camels, also known as dromedaries, have only one hump, but they employ it to great effect. The hump stores up to 80 pounds of fat, which a camel can break down into water and energy when sustenance is not available.

These humps give camels their legendary ability to travel up to desert miles without water. In winter, even desert plants may hold enough moisture to allow a camel to live without water for several weeks. When camels do refill, however, they soak up water like a sponge.

A very thirsty animal can drink 30 gallons of water in only 13 minutes. Other adaptations help dromedaries thrive in desert conditions. Their nostrils close to keep sand at bay, and they have bushy eyebrows and two rows of long eyelashes to protect their eyes. Large, tough lips enable them to pick at dry and thorny desert vegetation. Big, thick footpads help them navigate the rough rocky terrain and shifting desert sands.

Arabian camels have been domesticated for approximately 3, years and have been long valued as pack animals. They can carry large loads for up to 25 miles a day. Camel humps are a clever adaptation to keep camels cool in sweltering desert heat and to optimize water retention as well as conserve nutrients. Fat acts as insulation for warm blooded animals. By limiting the distribution of fat along the body and keeping it all in a single place their hump , camels can stay cooler than they would if their fat covered the rest of their body.

These fatty lumps can also be used as food reserves in instances where camels do not have access to food. The fatty tissue in camel humps stores key nutrients and minerals that are vital for helping camels survive in times without food. Actually though, camel humps are made up of large masses of fatty tissue that help to produce water when the fat is metabolized.

As mentioned earlier, camels do not actually store water in their humps. Camel humps can contain up to nearly 80 pounds of fatty tissue that are used as reserves for periods of time when camels are unable to drink or eat. A hump full of water could come in handy in a camel's line of work, but these bulges are actually filled with fat. That store of fat is like a spare tank of gasoline in your car trunk.

When food and water become scarce, the camel extracts energy from that mound of fat. In fact, the longer a camel goes without eating or drinking, the more visibly deflated its hump becomes. But give it adequate water and food, and camel humps plump up in a matter of days.

So just how long can a camel go without water before its hump starts to slump? In How long can you go without food and water? During winters in the Sahara Desert, camels have been known to survive six or seven months without actually drinking [source: Lumpkin ].

Granted, camels get liquid from the plants they eat during that dry spell, but it's still an incredibly long time sans drinking water. In peak summer months, when the mercury rises higher than degrees Fahrenheit 37 degrees Celsius , their nonhydrated stamina drops to around five days [source: Lumpkin ]. Camel physiology has two major adaptations compared to other mammals, which explains this ability.

First, a camel's internal body temperature has a far greater range than our bodies. During the hottest months, a camel's temperature may fluctuate between 93 and degrees Fahrenheit 33 to 40 degrees Celsius [source: Burton and Burton]. A team led by researchers from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom investigated the response of the kidneys of these animals when they experienced chronic dehydration and rapid rehydration.

For a study published in the journal Communications Biology , the team analyzed how thousands of genes changed in the camel kidneys as a result of dehydration and rehydration. One of the key adaptations that enables these camels to survive for so long without water is the ability of their very well-adapted kidneys to produce highly concentrated urine—these ensure that very little water is wasted.

In the latest study, the team found that the level of cholesterol—a waxy type of fat, or lipid—in the camel kidney plays an important role in the conservation of water.