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Camel or Dromedary - What’s the Difference?

Summary

This table shows you the most important differences at a glance.

SpeciesCharacteristic
Dromedary One hump
Bactrian Camel Two humps
Guanaco No humps
Llama No humps
Vicuña No humps
Alpaca No humps

Fun Facts

How Can these Animals Drink so Much so Fast?

When camels haven’t drunk in a long time, they take up a lot of water very quickly. They store some of it in their stomach. If they weren’t able to do this, they would suffer from “water poisoning” and could even die. Their kidneys cannot deal with so much water at one time and this would cause a disruption to the body’s sensitive and important “water-electrolyte balance” (the balance of water and minerals in the body).

What is actually IN the humps?

The humps are not used to store water, as people often think. They are the animal’s fat reserve.


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Bactrian CamelBactrian Camel - Photo: aleksandr hunta/Shutterstock


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