Ques
tion
JUNE / JULY 2022 • NAT GEO KIDS (^5)
Bactrian camels
have two humps.
Arabian camels,
also known as
dromedaries, have
only one.
LOVELY PET / SHUTTERSTOCK (MAIN CAMEL); CHALABALA / ADOBE STOCK (FLEXIBLE LIPS); ANDREA
WILLMORE / SHUTTERSTOCK (BABY CAMEL); DMITRY PICHUGIN / SHUTTERSTOCK (BACTRIAN CAMEL)
BY JULIE BEER
A camel’s hump is filled with
up to 80 pounds of fat,
which the camel uses for energy
when it can’t eat or drink. That
means these animals are able to
survive for several months
without food and can walk
up to a hundred miles in the
desert without water. (It
helps that they rarely
sweat, even in tempera-
tures over 120°F). As the
camel uses the fat, the
hump gets smaller. But once
it takes a break to eat and
drink again — a camel can
slurp 30 gallons of water in 13
minutes — the hump grows
bigger with the new fat inside.
Why (^) do c
amels
have^ hump
s?
Camels
use their
flexible lips to
eat thorny plants
and cacti that
other animals
avoid.
Baby
camels don’t
have humps.
CHECK
OUT THE
BOOK!
ARABIAN CAMEL