Bactrian Camel
The Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of north eastern Asia. It is one of the two surviving species of camel. The Bactrian Camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped Dromedary Camel.
Nearly all of the estimated 1.4 million Bactrian Camels alive today are domesticated, but in October 2002 the estimated 950 remaining in the wild in northwest China and Mongolia were placed on the critically endangered species list.
History
It is thought that the Bactrian Camel was domesticated (independently from the dromedary) sometime before 2500 BC, probably in northern Iran, Northeast Afghanistan, or southwestern Turkestan. The dromedary is believed to have been domesticated between 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE in Arabia. The wild population of Bactrian Camels was first described by Nikolai Przhevalsky in the late 19th century.
Bactrian Camels have been the focus of artwork throughout history. For example, western foreigners from the Tarim Basin and elsewhere were depicted in numerous ceramic figurines of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–907).
Evolutionary History
A complete range of fossils indicates that the Bactrian Camel lived in North America about 30 Ma and up until 8000 years ago, at which point it permanently migrated to Eurasia. Initially the animals where small but evolved to increase in body mass and height reaching 3.5 meters during the early pleistocene. The migration and subsequent distribution in Eurasia is believed to have occurred suddenly. Today the bactrian camel is well adapted to cold deserts.
Subspecies
There is some evidence that the Bactrian Camel can be divided up into different subspecies. In particular, it has been discovered that a population of wild Bactrian Camel lives within a part of the Gashun Gobi region of the Gobi Desert. This population is distinct from domesticated herds both in genetic makeup and in behavior.
There are possibly as many as three regions in the genetic makeup that are distinctly different from domesticated camels and there is up to a 3% difference in the base genetic code. However, with so few wild camels, it is unclear what the natural genetic diversity within a population would have been.
Canadian researcher William Sommers found that these wild camels had the ability to drink saltwater slush, although it is not yet certain the camel can extract useful water from it. Domesticated camels do not attempt to drink salt water, though the reason is unknown.
Conservation
The Bactrian Camel was identified as one of the top-10 "focal species" in 2007 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) project. There are only hundreds of them in the wild and the population is decreasing, but a large captive population has been kept.
Documentaries
The Story of the Weeping Camel, a 2003 Mongolian documentary/story about a family of nomadic shepherds trying to get a white colt accepted by his mother, who rejected him after a difficult birth.
Planet Earth: Deserts, showing footage of wild camels from a two-month trek in the Gobi desert. Includes "diary" section, explaining the difficulties in obtaining the footage.
Translation of "Bactrian Camel"
Afrikaans: Baktriese kameel, Arabic: جمل ذو سنامين, Breton: Kañval Baktria, Bulgarian: Двугърба камила, Catalan: Camell bactrià, Czech: Velbloud dvouhrbý, Danish: Kamel, German: Trampeltier, Spanish: Camelus bactrianus, Esperanto: Baktria kamelo, Basque: Gamelu, Persian: شتر دوکوهانه, French: Chameau de Bactriane, Korean: 쌍봉낙타, Croatian: Dvogrba deva, Indonesian: Unta Baktrian, Interlingua: Camelo, Icelandic: Kameldýr, Italian: Camelus bactrianus, Hebrew: גמל דו-דבשתי, Latin: Camelus bactrianus, Lithuanian: Dvikupris kupranugaris, Hungarian: Kétpúpú teve, Dutch: Kameel, Japanese: フタコブラクダ, Norwegian (Bokmål): Baktriakamel, Occitan: Camelus bactrianus, Polish: Wielbłąd dwugarbny, Portuguese: Camelo-bactriano, Russian: Двугорбый верблюд, Sicilian: Camiddu, Silesian: Dwupuklato kamela, Serbian: Двогрба камила, Serbo-Croatian: Baktrijska kamila, Finnish: Kaksikyttyräinen kameli, Swedish: Kamel, Tamil: இரட்டைத்திமில் ஒட்டகம், Turkish: Çift hörgüçlü deve, Uyghur: ئوتتۇرا ئاسىيا ياۋا تۆگىسى, Vietnamese: Lạc đà hai bướu, Cantonese: 雙峰駱駝, Chinese: 双峰骆驼.
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