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Today, when out and about, I stopped by a farm with a bactrian camel. How did I know it was a bactrian camel as opposed to a dromedary camel? Well, I know things about camels and camel relatives! You are also now in the privileged position where you, too, can learn about some camels. To begin, camels and their close relatives (llamas, vicuna, guanaco) are placental mammals. As such, camels do most of the normal placental mammal things. They have hair, they give birth to live young, they breathe air, they bleed red, the whole shebang. More specifically, they're artiodactyls, which is to say that they have an even number of toes. Toe reduction is common in terrestrial mammals, and the most "derived" fast-running species have experienced a decrease in the number of toes over time. (That most humans haven't is just a reflection of our shoddy workmanship. Clearly, God is some kind of idiot.) Though camels are not particularly fast, they have two toes per foot, much like the ostrich and the pronghorn antelope. Like the ostrich, but unlike the pronghorn, camels do not have hooves.    You can see there is also a reduction in the coverage of the nail overall. A camel's foot is largely adapted for traversing the sand, and therefore the primary concern is to keep the animal from sinking. Though "sinking" is less of a concern for the camelids of South America, such as the alpaca, you can see a similar configuration.  The family Camelidae contains all the contemporary camel and camel relative species (again, including vicuna and guanaco). In the past, suborder Tylopoda (which in turn encompasses Camelidae) contained many other species, but they are now extinct. To be honest, even Camelidae itself is not very speciose, although there are many individuals among the remaining species. Though the wild Bactrian camel is among the rarest of mammals on Earth, many exist in the domesticated lineage. In the 1970s, the vicuna was teetering at the brink, and now they are common. Camelids tend to do well when they're not being hunted. There are absolute assloads of feral dromedary camels in Australia, for example. Here's a vicuna! They are the most gracile of the camelids. There are over a quarter-million vicuna today, so like the size of some lovely Rust Belt city you might have heard of but would have no reason at all to visit. They live in the Andes, and I would like to see one in the wild.  Here's a guanaco! They look very similar and their ranges are similar. They're both countershaded, so their tum-tums are light-colored and their backs are darker, but neither has a dorsal stripe like, for example, a donkey. There are about a half-million of these remaining, all of them in South America.  This is a dromedary camel. It has one hump, because that's the number dromedaries have. These are the camels associated with the Bedouin and etc. There are about fifteen million dromedaries. All of them are domesticated or feral, none of the remaining dromedaries are truly "wild" lineages. Compare, for example, the wild tarpan and the feral mustang among horses. (Or brumby horses, if we're keeping the Australia thing going.)  This is a Bactrian camel, and it has two humps. It is fluffy and well-adapted to cold environments. They live in central Asia, and there are about two million domesticated Bactrian camels. There are a few hundred wild ones remaining, and very few people seem to care about saving them.  Camels are neat, but they are also assholes. They're known for having rather lovely tempers, and the much-loved llama is actually a pretty crummy pack animal all things considered. The hump of a camel is fat. When they take a long swig, their bellies distend instead. The best thing about camels is their teeth. 
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Aug 6, 2016 23:17
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 02:44 |
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reported for posting unlinked cameltoes
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Aug 6, 2016 23:20
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Gorehound that I am, my favorite individual camel is the BodyWorlds camel.
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Aug 6, 2016 23:20
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 rated 4
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Aug 6, 2016 23:20
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im gonna gently caress one of those weird long neck deers
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Aug 6, 2016 23:21
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Thanks for the fascinating glimpse into camel toes
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Aug 6, 2016 23:21
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talk about the body temperature thing
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Aug 6, 2016 23:27
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good job, Pick
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Aug 6, 2016 23:30
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you know the ones I mean that have the real long neck but they aren't gorafes they are like big swole deers with long thin necks, I'm gonna gently caress one
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Aug 6, 2016 23:31
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camels can be p cool
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Aug 6, 2016 23:32
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kiss my rear end op
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Aug 6, 2016 23:34
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Hell Yeah posted:kiss my rear end op hey you wouldn't happen to be one of those really weird long necked deers would you
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Aug 6, 2016 23:34
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I hope they save the wild bactrian camel
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Aug 6, 2016 23:35
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Pick how about alpacas. Thank u for the camel thread 
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Aug 7, 2016 00:36
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I've got about 30 alpaca on the property. They're pretty much weird looking sheep with personalities and idiosyncratic haircuts and patterning. The genetics for their fleece is more complicated than human hair and still hasn't been worked out properly as far as I know. We have a brown female alpaca that was rejected by her mother for being a month premature since they almost certainly die when that happens. We hand reared her in the house and she did almost die a couple times but she pulled through and is 3 now(alpacas are full grown by 2 and live to about 20) and thinks she's a person. When you shear them you kind of spread eagle them on their belly on the ground with ropes pulling on each leg, normally they're pretty relaxed when they go down but she's like wtf are you doing!! and screams and pisses and shits everywhere at the indignity of being treated like an alpaca. She really likes meeting new people and getting pats and embarrassingly she usually reacts to men by lifting her tail up and doing her sexy alpaca walk. Her favourite thing is sucking on gumboots. That's my alpaca story. edit: also, if you're not careful about how you close the barn she can open the bolt and break in to steal hay and alpaca pellets. Ratios and Tendency fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Aug 7, 2016 |
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Aug 7, 2016 00:58
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Aug 7, 2016 00:59
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Ratios and Tendency posted:edit: also, if you're not careful about how you close the barn she can open the bolt and break in to steal hay and alpaca pellets. I've had horses pick my pockets but I've never seen one break in to a barn to steal food before.
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Aug 7, 2016 01:58
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https://youtu.be/FcU54jKXTWQ
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Aug 7, 2016 02:12
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bleep.bloop posted:I've had horses pick my pockets but I've never seen one break in to a barn to steal food before. Horses are retarded.
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Aug 7, 2016 04:09
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Pretty sure this is a turkey. OP is a phoney!
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Aug 7, 2016 04:20
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Colonel Cancer posted:Pretty sure this is a turkey. Ostriches are the only birds with two toes, and the only birds with only one clawed toe.
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Aug 7, 2016 05:02
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Ratios and Tendency posted:Horses are retarded. They are, but all the ones I've known are also notorious practical jokers. Once a horse stole a pencil out of my tool bags and made me chase him around to get it back. Do camelids like to play pranks on people?
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Aug 7, 2016 05:05
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bleep.bloop posted:They are, but all the ones I've known are also notorious practical jokers. Once a horse stole a pencil out of my tool bags and made me chase him around to get it back. Do camelids like to play pranks on people? Does kicking people in the balls count as a prank? Alpaca fact #4 - males get into big screamy wrestling fights with each other where they try to bite each other's balls off.
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Aug 7, 2016 05:14
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The best Camels
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Aug 7, 2016 05:15
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I used to live in the Gobi Desert and regularly interacted with camels. Theyre assholes.
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Aug 7, 2016 06:53
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does anyone know the name f those weird long neck deers it's not that I'm gonna try and buy one because I want to gently caress one or anything haha just can't remember the name
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Aug 7, 2016 06:54
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A camelidae keeps the doctor away
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Aug 7, 2016 06:59
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Celluloid Sam posted:does anyone know the name f those weird long neck deers it's not that I'm gonna try and buy one because I want to gently caress one or anything haha just can't remember the name Giraffes pandas
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Aug 7, 2016 07:02
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Iron Prince posted:camels can be p cool Why is Joe Camels face a dick and balls anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWV3eS_JKvU
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Aug 7, 2016 07:13
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Edit: loving imgur
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Aug 7, 2016 07:13
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those images aren't showing up for me just wondering if it's the weird log neck deers?
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Aug 7, 2016 07:14
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Trying to phone post a bunch of my camel pics. Ill do it at home later
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Aug 7, 2016 07:15
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Hey alpaca guy post some pictures of your alpacas
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Aug 7, 2016 07:43
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Pick posted:Ostriches are the only birds with two toes, and the only birds with only one clawed toe. Whoa WHOA!
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Aug 7, 2016 08:11
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various cheeses posted:Hey alpaca guy post some pictures of your alpacas No promises but I might try to get some pics tomorrow.
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Aug 7, 2016 08:14
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Ratios and Tendency posted:No promises but I might try to get some pics tomorrow. Promise me, R&T
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Aug 7, 2016 10:44
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i thought you stopped making these threads pick, good to see i was wrong
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Aug 7, 2016 10:57
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I like me a bactrian, and am not a fan of dromedary. Please accept this offering of camel clips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myGm4DB2_Ew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU-X0fz60T4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksX0wDSgBY0
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Aug 7, 2016 11:17
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Quantum Finger posted:talk about the body temperature thing Animals maintain homeostatis (that is, physiological processes keep the body within its requisite parameters for continuing to be alive) through a variety of mechanisms. One such parameter is temperature. Bluefin tuna, for example, have a rete mirabile that reduces the amount of heat lost to the ocean water (whereas camels have one that cools blood flowing to the brain--a rete mirabile equalizes blood temp between arteries and veins pretty much). Dromedary camels, which are large diurnal desert creatures, are obviously more concerned with shedding heat than maintaining it. They don't have large ears like elephants though (in fact, camel ears are itty-bitty). They can however survive high internal temperatures, so yeah they let their interior temperatures reach 105 or so degrees F on a sometimes daily basis. They can go four two weeks without drinking water as long as the temperature isn't too high, since their kidneys are extremely effective at using minimal water for excretion. uhhh yep I think that stuff is right.
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Aug 8, 2016 00:08
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 02:44 |
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 The Sentinel
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Aug 8, 2016 00:08
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