Wild Bactrian Camel

     The Wild Bactrian Camel is a critically endangered Camel species that has limited populations in remote areas of northwest China and Mongolia. It’s closely related to the Bactrian Camel but it’s lighter, slenderer and has smaller humps.

     The Wild Bactrian camel is superbly adapted to life in the harsh climate of the Gobi Desert. As it has a double row of long eyelashes and long slit-like nostrils that can be closed for further protection during sandstorms. The Wild Bactrian Camel has also tough undivided soles with two large toes that spread wide apart for efficient travel across the shifting desert sands. Its coat tends to be lighter than that of its domestic relative, the Bactrian camel, and is a sandier grey-brown in color. The Wild Bactrian camel’s coat becomes thick and shaggy in winter when temperatures fall to -30 degrees Celsius, and is lost in big sections as temperatures increase. This camel is characterized by its long-curved neck, the long legs and the two small, pyramid-shaped humps.

     Wild Bactrian camels are highly migratory, and herds travel vast distances in search of food and water sources. The mating season is mainly in the winter with an overlap into the rainy season. The female gives birth to a single calf after a Gestation period of 12 – 14 months.

     One of the most unique abilities of the Wild Bactrian Camel is adapting to drinking salt water with a higher salt content than sea water. Domestic Bactrian camels cannot drink salt water with this degree of salt and research to date does not show conclusively how the Wild Camel does that. The Wild Bactrian Camel is also able to survive the effects of nuclear radiation in its place of living and breeds naturally.

     It was Previously thought that the Wild Bactrian Camel is the ancestor of all domestic camels. But recent genetic studies have shown that the Wild Bactrian Camel is in fact a distinct species, with an independent evolution history.