CAMEL

[Heb., ga·malʹ; beʹkher, ‘young male camel’ (Isa 60:6); bikh·rahʹ, “young she-camel” (Jer 2:23); kir·ka·rohthʹ, “swift she-camels” (Isa 66:20); Gr., kaʹme·los].

An animal that has long served man as a beast of burden and a means of transport, especially in desert regions. There are two varieties of camel, the Bactrian and the Arabian. The Bactrian (Camelus bactrianus) has two humps on its back, is stronger than the Arabian, and is able to carry greater loads; the Arabian (Camelus dromedarius), thought to be the one generally referred to in the Bible, has only one hump.

The camel’s characteristics ideally fit it for life in desert regions, where it fills the place usually assigned the horse or donkey in other lands. This animal’s thick hair shields it from desert heat. Its long slitlike nostrils can close at will, a useful precaution against the blowing sand. Its eyes are shielded from blistering sandstorms by heavy eyelids and long eyelashes. The camel’s feet are provided with a hardened skin and are padlike, remarkably shaped for walking on soft and yielding sand. Callous pads on which the animal rests protect its chest and knees. These pads are present at birth. The camel’s strong teeth enable it to chew practically anything. This creature needs little grain and can subsist on the common plants of the desert, making it an animal quite economical to use.

The camel’s hump serves as a sort of portable pantry. Here most of its food reserve is stored in the form of fat. If the camel is required to draw nourishment from its stored-up food supply for too long a time, the skin of the hump, instead of standing up, falls over and hangs like an empty bag on the side of the dorsal ridge. In ancient times, as today, loads were placed on the humps of camels. (Isa 30:6) Mention is also made in Scripture of a “woman’s saddle basket of the camel,” which undoubtedly was placed on the camel’s hump.​—Ge 31:34.

Although folklore has it that the camel stores water in its hump, this is not the case. It is generally thought that the camel can get along without water for a prolonged period because of its ability to retain much of the water that it drinks. A contributory factor is the design of the nose, which enables the animal to extract water vapor when exhaling. The camel can tolerate a loss of water of 25 percent of its weight, in contrast to 12 percent for humans. It does not lose moisture by perspiration as rapidly as do other creatures, because its body temperature can vary 6° C. (11° F.) without marked effects. Its blood is unique in that loss of fluid is minimal even when water is in short supply for several days. It can also replace lost body weight by drinking as much as 135 L (35 gal) in ten minutes.

Some camels are known to have traveled at amazing speeds. At 1 Samuel 30:17, an allusion to swift camels may be noted. It was only the 400 young men that rode camels who escaped when David struck down the Amalekite raiders.

According to the Law, the camel was an unclean animal and, therefore, was not used by the Israelites for food. (Le 11:4; De 14:7) However, camel hair was woven into cloth. John the Baptizer wore a garment of this material. (Mt 3:4; Mr 1:6) Even today the cloth made from camel hair is used for making articles of clothing.