A cashier, having a poetic name “desert ship” is one of the most amazing creatures in nature. Not even so much because it can easily do without water for a long time, but for its wonderful ability to cope with the most difficult conditions. Moreover, he is able to fight not only from the heat of the desert, but also with very low temperatures in other habitats.
Features of camels
The habitat of this wonderful animal for the most part represents the most unfavorable arid areas of the planet from deserts to steppes. This creation of nature is perfectly adapted to longterm finding in such conditions a camel can be without food and water for a very long time.
So, without water, a camel is able to stay for a week, and without food for two whole weeks. Such endurance needs a camel in order to be able to make long transitions between sources of lifegiving moisture. At the same time, a camel is able to eat only its own savings and reserves in the body. Although by the end of a long and tiring transition and humps of a camel will lose their elasticity and volume, and the camel itself will significantly lose weight and lose weight.
Devices that allow the camel to survive
The main of the specific devices by which the camel can be distinguished from all other animals, and which give it the opportunity to survive in the desert is humps from fat deposits. These deposits are a kind of “roof”, which, first of all, carries out a protective function, covering the back of the animal from the rays of the sun. In addition, such a concentration of fat deposits in one place helps to increase the level of heat transfer.
Contrary to the previous one in the past, the opinion that water is stored in the camel humps, in fact, animals are fat in them, thanks to which at the right moment they receive a sufficient amount of moisture, turning it into water. The humps are a kind of insulating material, serving as a certain thermostat that ensures the organization of the necessary heat transfer. T.e. Humps represent a supply of food and moisture in case of critical necessity.
For example, camels do not yet have such devices since fat begins to be deposited only at the time of switching to solid food.
How camels satisfy the need for water?
How can camels do so long without water in such hot conditions? In fact, camels generate water from fat, which they accumulate in their humps due to the processes of its oxidation. So, from a hundred grams of fat during oxidation, the animal receives more than 107 grams of clean moisture.
Although it is logical of this information that the question arises: why camels are the only ones who of all animals with fat reserves can be so freely handled with fat? In fact, everything is simple: in order to be able to oxidize fat stocks, animals must have a large supply of oxygen and, therefore, breathe intensely.
Each breath loads into the lungs of dry and hot air, which leaves the body, enriched with moisture. And the camel, in addition to all other devices, has one more thing: moisture distinguished from the animal’s nostrils is accumulated in a special fold and without problems falls back, thus increasing the amount of precious fluid.
To reduce the amount of lost moisture by reducing loss of sweating helps and another property of this truly unique animal helps. The fact is that the camel has one significant difference from most other mammals it is able to change body temperature, focusing on the external environment indicators. For example, it easily varies from 35 to 40 degrees while other animals habitually maintain a constant temperature indicator.
The capabilities of the camel
A camel is capable of drinking more than two hundred liters of water at a time and at a terrible speed in just 20 minutes. And these animals are not at all overgrown in the choice of moisture even salty water will suit them.
True, some scientists argue that the preserved moisture is evenly preserved in the tissues of the body of the animal. However, if this was the case, then in the body of the camel there would be a very low level of salt content and this is not so.
It is worth noting that the camel is practically not subject to dehydration. At a time when most of the animals die from dehydration, losing only 20% of the total body weight in the form of water, the camel will survive without any special consequences, losing up to 40%.
Their unique body is arranged in such a way that camels are not only not able to sweat, but do not even exhale moisture a special nasal fold prevents this, returning water back to the body. They do not even release moisture in a natural way, with excrement.
But in any case, the camel, like any animal, after a long difficult period of starvation and drought, will require rest and restoration.
Camel fat and its abilities
Fat, which a camel collects in his hump, is not only a food and water reserve. Since the humps the fat layer are located on the back of the animal, which is all open to the rays of the deserted sun, this fat is able to protect the animal both from overheating and from the influence of solar radiation.
Gorb is able to play the role of a kind of temperature controller throughout the night (rather cold in the desert) it can cool to a indicator of 34 degrees, while providing a camel with a coolness in the morning.
In addition to all of the above, the camel has the opportunity to transfer huge cargoes (up to 400 kg) to itself and its unique hump, for which I received the name “Ship of the Desert”.
At the same time, the animal passes up to 40 kilometers a day according to inconceivable desert conditions.
With all their abilities, camels have been serving humanity for many thousands of years and their significance in many Asian peoples still retains their importance.
