Hi Y’all,
I hadn’t done a necropsy post in a while, so I decided to run through another episode of Inside Nature’s Giants, this time on camels! As usual, I provide timestamps for readers who do not want to watch the gorier parts of the video. Out of all the previous necropsy episodes, I would say that the camel is one of the least gory but just as interesting! This episode takes place in Australia. I posted an article recently on the Bloggerheadseaturtle Facebook page about kangaroos overrunning the outback, but apparently, this is also occurring with camels.
3:00 – Camels were imported to Australia from south Asia to assist builders with transporting materials for railways and roads. Instead of killing the camels after the job was completed, owners left them to fend for themselves in the wild. And fend they did! Today, camels are overrunning the outback and the government has begun to cull them to minimize the destruction they are causing to the native wildlife. A hunter culls the camel the anatomists will dissect at 4:30.
5:40 – Richard Dawkins explains that when invasive or introduced species flourish, they make it incredibly difficult for native plant and/or animal species to survive. Rabbit populations have also exploded in Australia, forcing controlled cullings.
8:00 – Anatomists adjust the camel carcass into a sitting position on its “pedestal.” The pedestal is a thick keratinized pad on the camel’s sternum. It allows a camel to prop itself up, thereby reducing surface contact with the hot desert ground. Additionally, the pedestal increases airflow under and around the camel’s body, helping it stay cool.
- Note the pedestal on the camel’s sternum
10:00 – Dissection begins with the famous camel hump. In this particular camel, the skin is only about 1cm thick. However, the smaller the hump, the thicker the skin. The skin will stretch and thin out as the hump expands. A camel’s hump is comprised primarily of fatty tissue. By having fat concentrated in the hump, as opposed to surrounding the entire body, camels can shed heat more easily. Furthermore, the fat protects the camel’s internal organs from overhead sun/heat.
13:05 – Originally, camels emerged in North America but died out. However, some camels had migrated to South America and Asia via land bridges. It wasn’t long before humans began using them to carry heavy loads across long distances. 
14:25 – Camera crews visit a camel ranch. Camels are not known to be friendly animals initially, so they must be tamed if they were wild. A camel jockey lives on the ranch and you see some interesting footage of her trying to tame wild camels. It can take months or years to break a camel. Camels have fighting fangs and can kill other camels by holding them down with their teeth while sitting on their necks. Video of this behavior was rather disturbing, and I had no idea that they were so naturally aggressive.
17:46 – Back to the necropsy to look at the mouth. The inside of the cheeks is full of fingerlike projections, or papillae. This is very similar to what is seen in leatherback sea turtles. In camels, these projections function as a way to hold food in place, especially when camels regurgitate food back up to masticate it further. Camels have a resilient stomach and can eat over 80% of the vegetation found in the outback.
19:55 – My favorite part of this episode was learning about the extension of the soft palate that some male camels have. It is referred to as the dulla, and it is inflatable and the camels use it to attract mates or assert dominance. I thought it was fascinating because it is similar to the organ that hooded seals have. However, the inflatable aspect in hooded seals originates from the nasal cavity, not the mouth, but they also use it for mate attraction and dominance displays.
23:53 – Camels can produce 80 liters of saliva A DAY! That’s crazy! So, how do they do that when water is such a precious commodity? Anatomists turn to the stomach for answers. Camels possess glandular sacs in their stomachs. These sacs function like little pockets to increase surface area and water absorption. Water within a camel is constantly recycled, allowing it survive up to six months without drinking!
30:06 – One of the biologists tries to race a camel to see how humans handle heat/dehydration compared to a camel. I didn’t really like this part because a 100m dash with a camel isn’t enough to study dehydration effects, but it was just for TV I guess… Even though the camel hadn’t drunk water in three days, it was still less dehydrated than the biologist who had been routinely drinking water.
32:20 – Camels do not sweat, so how do they deal with such extreme temperatures? Camels can actually handle a temperature difference of up to six degrees thanks to a unique cooling mechanism in their heads. Brain tissue is much more sensitive to temperature differences than the rest of the body. To account for this, camels have large turbinates in their noses. Turbinates are moist, spongy nasal bones that help camels cool blood before it reaches their brains. The video has a great animation of the process at 33:50. There is also cool thermograph footage at 34:40.
35:05 – The necropsy continues with the kidneys. All animals must eliminate waste, but camels minimize that need by having a small bladder (even smaller than a human’s bladder). By recycling all water that they intake, a camel’s kidneys produce almost no urine.
37:20 – Drinking contest with a camel. Camels can drink up to 100 liters in a single sitting! If humans drink too much water, their red blood cells burst. How do camels handle it? It comes down to the shape of their red blood cells. Humans normally have round, dented cells. However, camels have flat, oval cells which don’t clog veins when a camel is dehydrated and don’t burst when blood vessels are extremely expanded from overhydration. There is a nice animation of this at 38:33.
40:00 – Camels are known to carry heavy loads over long distances. The video even shows footage of a camel carrying a car up a hill. They can also travel about 50 km a day and run up to 55 kph. This is not as fast as a horse, but camels are more resilient and can maintain that rigorous amount of exercise for days. This seems to be tied to the camel’s leg anatomy (42:05). Camels have soft, keratinized pads on their feet (similar to their pedestal). These pads function as shock absorbers (animation at 43:55). Thanks to a camel’s extremely strong Achilles tendon, camels can walk long distances without overexerting themselves.
That’s it for me on camel anatomy! I was interested in learning more about their physiology, but I didn’t think that they would have such elaborate adaptations for living in the desert. I found it really fascinating to learn more about them, and I hope you did too!
bloggerheadseaturtle 