Academic Reading: 4

How Camels Survive in the Desert

Deserts are extremely difficult places for most animals to live. During the day, desert temperatures can rise above forty degrees Celsius, and at night, they can drop close to freezing. Water is also very hard to find in most desert areas. Despite these harsh conditions, camels have lived successfully in deserts for thousands of years. Their bodies have several special features that help them survive.

One common belief about camels is that they store water inside their humps. This is not actually true. A camel's hump is mostly made of fat, not water. This fat provides energy when food is difficult to find, and storing the fat in one place on the back, rather than spreading it under the skin, helps the rest of the camel's body release heat more easily. This is one reason camels can tolerate such high daytime temperatures.

Camels are also able to survive without drinking water for long periods, sometimes for more than a week at a time. When they finally do find water, they can drink an extremely large amount very quickly, sometimes more than one hundred liters in just a few minutes. Camels can do this safely because their red blood cells are shaped differently from those of most other mammals. This special oval shape allows the blood cells to change size without bursting when the camel drinks so much water so fast.

Camels have several other useful features as well. Their long eyelashes and their ability to close their nostrils help keep out sand during strong desert winds. Their wide, flat feet spread out their body weight, which allows them to walk across soft sand without sinking in, much like a person wearing snowshoes on top of deep snow.

Because of all these features, camels have been essential to people living in and traveling through deserts for many centuries. They have been used to carry goods, people, and water across long distances where other animals would quickly die of thirst or extreme heat. Even today, in some desert regions, camels remain an important and reliable form of transportation for local communities.