ANSWERS: 5
  • They store it in the hump on there back!
  • Their humps... lovely lady lumps!
  • they're very clumsy & keep breaking their cups,they've not mastered the art & have learnt to do without:)
  • They do not store the water in their humps, that's a myth. A camel's hump is actually just a giant mound of fat. In a healthy, well-fed camel, the hump can weigh as much as 80 pounds. The hump allows a camel to survive an extremely long time (up to two weeks) without food if need be. A camel uses about 5 gallons of water a day in the summer. However, a camel can lose up to 25 gallons of water from its body tissues without ill effects. One thing that a camel can do to conserve water is to handle large body-temperature swings. A camel might start the day at 94 degrees F and allow its temperature to rise as high as 105 degrees F. Only at the upper end of this range does it need to sweat to prevent overheating. When you compare this temperature range to the range the human body can handle (where only a 2 degree rise indicates illness), you can see the advantage.
  • They have design features that help them conserve it. One of the most important is that their body temperature can go way up during the day without harming them--other mammals have to use a lot of evaporating perspiration as a water coolant to get rid of that heat, but camels just save the excess heat for use during the cold desert nights. Their kidneys are also designed to produce highly concentrated urine and conserve water, unlike those of almost all other mammals. Their digestive systems not only take water out of their food, but since water is one of the breakdown products of carbohydrate digestion, it stays in their blood rather than being excreted the way our kidneys do. The hump represents stored food, not stored water. However, as the fat in their humps is used for energy, it turns into carbon dioxide and water. One breed of North African camels doesn't drink at all during the dry season--its metabolism somehow changes over annually--and if it's offered water during that season, it won't take a drink.

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