dromedary
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Dromedary mare with young animal |
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| Camelus dromedarius | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The dromedary ( Camelus dromedarius ), also known as the single-humped or Arabian camel , is a species of mammal from the genus of Old World camels within the family of camels (Camelidae). It is widespread as a pack animal and riding animal in large parts of Asia and Africa , but is extinct in its wild form. Descendants of released or runaway animals still live in large numbers in the wild in the central regions of Australia. The name comes from the Greek δρομάς ( dromás ), which means "running".
features
General
- anatomy
Skeleton of a dromedary
Dromedary foot
Dromedary heart
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Dromedaries are immediately distinguishable from the trample , the two-humped camel, by their individual humps. They reach a head body length of 2.3 to 3.4 meters, a shoulder height of 1.8 to 2.3 meters and a weight of 300 to 700 kilograms. The tail is relatively short at around 50 centimeters. The fur is mostly sandy, but there are also other shades of color from white to extremely dark brown. The crown, neck, neck and trunk are covered with longer hair. These animals have a long neck on which an elongated head sits. The upper lip is split and the closable nostrils are slit-shaped. The lids have very long eyelashes. Various calluses are found on the sternum , elbows, wrist, heel and knee. As with all camels (including llama , alpaca , vicuna , and guanaco in South America), the feet have two toes that have calloused pads instead of hooves. The stomach is made as with all camels of several chambers together, which facilitates the digestion of plant food.
The heart weighs about 5 kg; it has two ventricles with the apex curved to the left. The pulse rate is 50 beats per minute. Dromedaries (like all camels) are the only mammals to have oval red blood cells. The pH of the blood varies from 7.1 to 7.6. (For comparison: the pH of human blood is usually between 7.36 and 7.44.) The individual's state of hydration, gender, and time of year can affect blood values. The lungs have no lobes. A dehydrated camel has a lower breathing rate. Each kidney has a capacity of 858 cm 3 and can produce urine with high concentrations of chloride. Like the horse, the dromedary does not have a gallbladder. The gray-purple, crescent-shaped spleen weighs less than 500 g. The roughly triangular, four-chamber liver weighs 6.5 kg; its dimensions are around 60 cm in length, 42 cm in width at the base and 18 cm in width at the top.
Adaptation to the dry habitat
Their adaptation to arid climates enables them to live in desert areas. They have the ability to go without water for a long time because they can store a lot of water in the body. The back hump contains fat stores, which the animal can burn in order to gain energy if there is not enough food. Although the dromedary does not store water in its hump, it does, if necessary, in its stomach. The kidneys reabsorb much of the fluid by strongly concentrating the urine . Most of the fluid is also withdrawn from the faeces before excretion.
The body temperature of dromedaries drops very sharply during the night, so that during the day the body only warms up slowly and the animal does not need to sweat for a long time. During a dry spell, a dromedary can lose up to 25% of its body weight without dying of thirst. Body weight lost through sweating can be regained in ten minutes through water intake.
The adaptation of the kidneys, the mechanisms for regulating body temperature and the absorption of water vapor from the breath with the help of the nasal mucous membranes have been researched in particular by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen .
distribution
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The dromedary is widespread as a pet throughout North Africa , the Horn of Africa and Asia from the Middle East with Anatolia to the northwest of India . The southern limit of distribution is around the 13th – 15th in the Sahel from Senegal to Sudan. Degrees north latitude, in East Africa (Somalia and Kenya) 2nd degree south latitude; the northern border is in Turkestan , where it sometimes occurs next to the two-humped camel .
Dromedaries have also been introduced to the Balkans , Namibia, and the Canary Islands .
After the dromedaries were introduced to Australia from India in the mid-19th century to use for inland development, they were used as livestock from around 1840 to 1907. The offspring of released or runaway animals live there to this day in the wild in the central regions. This population is the only free-ranging dromedary population in the world; In the “National Action Plan on Wild Camels” adopted in 2010, the authors assumed there were more than one million animals. According to an estimate from 2013, however, the number of dromedaries is nowhere near as large as previously assumed. After the implementation of a “camel control program” in the course of which 160,000 dromedaries were shot down within four years, and after a drought during which their numbers were reduced by a further 100,000 animals, it amounted to only about 300,000 animals. Still, the dromedaries, whose population would uncontrollably double every eight to ten years, are increasingly a problem. During the 2019/2020 bushfires in Australia , huge herds of water and food penetrated into indigenous communities in search of water and food. They have polluted the drinking water and plundered the scarce food supplies, it said on the part of the Environment Ministry of the state of South Australia . Because of the persistent extreme drought, the forced killing of up to 10,000 camels was therefore started - to "protect people and animals" as it was called.
The southwestern United States also had a wild population for the same reasons as Australia, but it was wiped out in the early 20th century.
Way of life
Social behavior
Dromedaries are diurnal. Animals living in the wild usually live in harem groups made up of a male (stallion), several females (mares) and their offspring (foals). Adolescent males often form bachelor groups, but these are not very long-lived. Sometimes males fight for leadership in a group, fought out by bites and kicks.
food
These animals, like all camels, are herbivores that can ingest all kinds of plants - even thorny and salty ones. The food is swallowed little chewed and first reaches the forestomach to be finally digested after ruminating. This process is similar to that of ruminants (Ruminantia), to which the camels are not included zoologically. The digestive system of the camels is likely to have developed independently of that of the ruminants, which can be seen, among other things, in the fact that the forestomach are provided with glands. In absolute emergency situations, however, they also eat bones , skins or meat and indigestible substances.
Reproduction
Mating often occurs in winter, but is related to the rainy season. The gestation period is around 360 to 440 days, usually a single young is born, twins are rare. Newborns flee the nest and can walk independently after one day. The mother takes care of the offspring for around one to two years, weaning occurs after one to one and a half years. Two years after birth, the female can give birth again.
Sexual maturity occurs in females at three years of age, in males at four to six years. Life expectancy is estimated at 40 to 50 years.
Dromedaries and people
Wild dromedaries
The wild ancestral form of the domesticated dromedary became extinct in ancient times. Earlier assumptions that the dromedary only emerged as a domesticated form from ancestors that resembled the two-humped camel or trample, which were common to the east, have now been refuted on the basis of morphological and genetic data. The two lineages of the Old World camels were probably genetically separated from one another five to eight million years ago, and thus almost at the same time as they immigrated to the Old World, although both species can still be crossed today. The wild stem form of the dromedary, sometimes referred to as the species Camelus thomasi Pomel (1893), was originally widespread in Southwest Asia and North Africa, but became extinct in Africa in the Pleistocene . In the 2nd millennium BC BC the species probably only inhabited a small area in the southwestern coastal regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Here the animals were initially heavily hunted, as can be seen from the bones found in archaeological excavation sites.
Domesticated dromedaries
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The dromedary was probably made at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. In the Arabian Peninsula domesticated . The oldest Mesopotamian royal inscription in which the camel is mentioned dates from around 1060 BC. From the late 2nd millennium onwards, the archaeological find situation changes: more bone material in settlements, less in remote hunting stations, the animals also became somewhat smaller and were artistically depicted as pets, taken together this is evidence of domestication in this area Time viewed. According to the genetic data, wild-caught animals were crossed into the early breeding line for a long time. The - now domesticated - species was only introduced back to North Africa in relevant quantities in the 1st millennium AD. Originally, dromedaries may have been domesticated primarily as a milk supplier. In Somalia this use predominates to this day. The use as a source of meat and leather, as well as the use of wool, developed a little later. Even their dung , dried, is used as fuel in the resource-poor environment. Until about 1500 BC The donkey was used almost exclusively as a transport animal in the area of distribution of the dromedaries. The use as a pack animal initially required the development of a suitable saddle. This had the burden even with the vast movements of the animal in ambling keep and spread evenly on the back. Between 1300 and 100 BC In BC, nomadic Arab ethnic groups developed a carrying saddle adapted for the dromedary, which allows an average of about 250 kilograms to be transported on the animal. This saddle shape has been in use almost unchanged for more than 2000 years.
In the case of riding saddles, the heavy Arabian hump saddles, the wooden frame of which is placed over the entire hump, are differentiated from the lighter shoulder saddles common on the northern edge of the Sahara. With this type, which goes back to a development of the Berbers , the rider does not sit with drooping legs, but in front of the hump, where he can support his feet on the neck. The Mauritanian men's saddle Rahla is an example. In Tunisia the rider sits behind the hump.
The dromedary spread as a pet very late in North Africa . Since the turn of the ages, its distribution area has been expanding steadily due to increasing desertification , often at the expense of domestic cattle. Today there are different breeds that are mostly bred either as mounts or robust pack animals. A distinction is made between riding, racing, load, mountain and flatland dromedaries as well as intermediate forms. In some cases, hybrids with the trample are produced, which are larger and heavier due to heterosis effects ; However, they are not suitable for further breeding, so they are always recreated as crossbreeds.
The dromedary is the most important companion of the nomadic Bedouins in the Sahara and in the Arab desert regions. It is both a pack animal and a mount and serves the Bedouins as a supplier of wool, milk and meat . Its frugality enabled the establishment of trade routes through impassable desert regions (e.g. the Frankincense Route from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean ) and thus contributed significantly to the economic prosperity of that time.
"'Ata Allah', gift of God, is what the Bedouins call the four-legged survivors of the desert."
The military use of dromedaries as mounts has been around since at least the 9th century BC. Occupied. The animals are still used for this purpose today.
See the main article Camel Rider .
Characteristic
In his book Der Weltensammler Ilija Trojanow characterizes this domesticated camel, which is used as a pack and mount animal in large parts of Asia and Africa :
“On trips like this, everyone was often alone with themselves and their dromedary, that sullen, unruly animal whose only friendly gesture was an occasional fart. Sheikh Abdullah immediately attacked himself with his dromedary, which contradicted his reputation as a patient being. It was vicious, uncontrollable, sometimes even dangerous. It distrusted everything unknown, and the sounds it uttered, be it the snorting groaning or the partly sorry, partly annoying bleating, were unbearable. It complained about every pound it was put on. On the first evening, Sheikh Abdullah made some derogatory remarks to the animal driver about the mount. You are good with people, Sheikh, replied the latter, dromedaries are no different from people. When they are young they do not know how to behave. As adults they are violent and uncontrollable, in the rutting season, when the male smells a willing female ten kilometers away, he becomes stubborn, his tongue trembles. And with age they become quarrelsome, vengeful and disgruntled. "
Anders describes Alexander William Kinglake the essence of a Dromedarstute in his travelogue Eothen :
The camel kneels to receive her load, and for a while she will allow the packing to go on with silent resignation, but when she begins to suspect that her master is putting more than a just burthen upon her poor hump, she turns round her supple neck, and looks sadly upon the increasing load, and then gently remonstrates against the wrong with the sigh of a patient wife. If sighs will not move you, she can weep. You soon learn to pity, and soon to love her for the sake of her gentle and womanish ways.
“The mare camel kneels down to receive her load and for a while she will allow it to be packed with quiet resignation. However, when she begins to suspect her master that he is piling more than the right and cheap burden on her poor hump, she turns her lithe neck and looks sadly at the growing load and then cautiously contradicts the injustice with the sigh of a patient wife. If sighs don't soften you, she can cry. You will soon learn to pity her because of her mild and feminine nature and soon to love her. "
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 (English).
- E. Mukasa-Mugerwa: The Camel (Camelus Dromedarus): A Bibliographical Review. International Livestock Center for Africa, Addis Ababa 1981, ISBN 92-9053-013-8 .
- Faisal Almathen, Pauline Charruau, Elmira Mohandesan, Joram M. Mwacharo, Pablo Orozco-ter Wengel, Daniel Pitt, Abdussamad M. Abdussamad, Margarethe Uerpmann, Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Bea De Cupere, Peter Magee, Majed A. Alnaqeeb, Bashir Salim , Abdul Raziq, Tadelle Dessie, Omer M. Abdelhadi, Mohammad H. Banabazi, Marzook Al-Eknah, Chris Walzer, Bernard Faye, Michael Hofreiter, Joris Peters, Olivier Hanotte, Pamela A. Burger: Ancient and modern DNA reveal dynamics of domestication and cross-continental dispersal of the dromedary. In: PNAS . 113 (24), 2016, pp. 6707-6712, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1519508113 .
- Use U. Koehler-Rollefson: Camelus dromedarius. In: Mammalian Species. 375, 1991, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.2307 / 3504297 .
- Heike Bentheimer: The gift of God. In: Morocco: Tradition and Culture in the Land of the Berbers. Ed .: Bernd Schwenkros u. Detlef von Oppeln, Trescher Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-89794-324-7 , p. 32 (excerpt from Google Books ).
Web links
- Dromedary Camel on creatures-of-the-world.wikia.com, accessed June 21, 2018.
- Fact sheet Dromedary on ultimateungulate.com.
- Jona Lendering: Dromedaries and Camels . In: Livius.org (English)
- Camel plague is said to be a financial blessing. Article on orf.at.
- Holger Schulz: Dromedaries - The single-humped camels of Arabia and Africa. Report from April 19, 2009, on: "The fascinating world of animals." Accessed on January 18, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ AH Hegazi: The liver of the camel as revealed by macroscopic and microscopic examinations . In: American Journal of Veterinary Research . 15, No. 56, 1954, pp. 444-6.
- ↑ a b A. H. Hegazi: The spleen of the camel compared with other domesticated animals and its microscopic examination . In: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association . 122, No. 912, 1953, pp. 182-4.
- ↑ MZ Barakat, M. Abdel-Fattah: Seasonal and sexual variations of certain constituents of normal camel blood . In: Central Journal of Veterinary Medicine Series A . 18, No. 2, 1971, pp. 174-8. doi : 10.1111 / j.1439-0442.1971.tb00852.x .
- ^ AS Leese : "Tips" on camels for veterinary surgeons on active service . Bailliere, Tindall And Cox, London, UK 1918, pp. 1-56.
- ↑ K. Schmidt-Nielsen, EC Jr. Crawford, AE Newsome, KS Rawson, HT Hammel: Metabolic rate of camels: effect of body temperature and dehydration . In: American Journal of Physiology . 212, 1967, pp. 341-6.
- ^ A b I. U. Kohler-Rollefson: Camelus dromedarius. Mammalian Species 375, 1991, pp. 1-8 ( [1] )
- ↑ Information on the website of the Northern Territory Government ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed February 8, 2015).
- ↑ Spiegel online: Plague in Australia: snipers killed 160,000 camels (accessed on November 21, 2013).
- ↑ Report on the shooting of wild camels on ORF.at ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed December 13, 2009).
- ↑ Drought and bushfire - Australia shoots thousands of camels. In: Deutsche Welle website . January 8, 2020, accessed January 13, 2020 .
- ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Drought: snipers are said to kill 10,000 camels in Australia - DER SPIEGEL - science. Retrieved January 8, 2020 .
- ^ Pietro Martini, Peter Schmid, Loïc Costeur: Comparative Morphometry of Bactrian Camel and Dromedary. In: Journal of Mammalian Evolution. (online before print), 2017, doi: 10.1007 / s10914-017-9386-9
- ↑ a b c Faisal Almathen, Pauline Charruau, Elmira Mohandesan, Joram M. Mwacharo, Pablo Orozco-ter Wengel, Daniel Pitt, Abdussamad M. Abdussamad, Margarethe Uerpmann, Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Bea De Cupere, Peter Magee, Majed A. Alnaqeeb, Bashir Salim, Abdul Raziq, Tadelle Dessie, Omer M. Abdelhadi, Mohammad H. Banabazi, Marzook Al-Eknah, Chris Walzer, Bernard Faye, Michael Hofreiter, Joris Peters, Olivier Hanotte, Pamela A. Burger: Ancient and modern DNA reveal dynamics of domestication and cross-continental dispersal of the dromedary. In: PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 113 (24), 2016, 6707-6712, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1519508113 .
- ↑ Pamela Anna Burger: The history of Old World camelids in the light of molecular genetics. In: Tropical Animal Health and Production. 48 (5), 2016, 905-913. doi: 10.1007 / s11250-016-1032-7 (open access).
- ^ J. Peters: Camelus thomasi Pomel, 1893, a possible ancestor of the one-humped camel? In: Journal of Mammals. 6, 1998, 372-376.
- ↑ Michael Herles: Camels in Assyrian Sources - An exotic becomes a matter of course. In: Ute Pietruschka, Michael P. Streck (Ed.): Symbolic representation and reality of nomadic life. (= Nomads and settled people, Volume 12) Dr. Ludwig Reichert, Wiesbaden 2010, p. 127
- ^ William Bernstein: A Splendid Exchange - How Trade Shaped the World. Atlantic Books, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-84354-803-4 , p. 56.
- ^ William Bernstein: A Splendid Exchange - How Trade Shaped the World. Atlantic Books, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-84354-803-4 , pp. 56 f.
- ↑ Holger Schulz :: Dromedaries - The single-humped camels of Arabia and Africa. Report. In: The fascinating world of animals. April 19, 2009, accessed January 18, 2020 .
- ^ Ilja Trojanow: The collector of the world. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-13581-8 , p. 292 f.
- ↑ Alexander William Kinglake: Eothen. London 1864. p. 190 ; German translation 2017 by Bernhard Rubenbauer: Eothen - In the Ottoman Empire. ISBN 978-3-73940-078-5 .
