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The camel has the lowest rate of water loss of any indigenous livestock species. In hot summers less than 1 liter of urine is excreted per day. The reasons for this remarkable trait include a) the ability to store heat without water loss to the environment through sweating; b) special kidney modifications that allow
for increased concentration of urine without diuresis; and c) inhibition of thyroxin production during periods of dehydration which decreases pulmonary water loss and reduces basic metabolism.
In the summer when temperatures exceed 40°C and the water content of forages no longer meets most or all of the camel’s needs, a 3- to 4-day interval between treks to the well can be maintained without adverse effects to health. Camels can withstand 20 to 30% weight losses from dehydration and replace those losses in 10 to 15 rain at a well.
Oval-shaped erythrocytes (instead of roundshaped ones) expand up to 200% their normal size as camels drink rapidly at crowded wells. Cattle, sheep, and goats do not have this capability for rapid and complete rehydration, and they are restricted, therefore, to grazing that is closer to water. This situation has led to overgrazing, desertification, and high livestock mortality when numbers of these ruminants have exceeded the carrying capacity of the surrounding rangeland.
Mobility of cattle, sheep, and goats is most affected by their required 2- to 3-day watering interval.
Adaptation to low protein diets through urea recycling is another unique attribute. Urea recycling was high in the gastrointestinal tract of camels on a low protein ration. The extent of recycling increased from 27 to 86% of total urea turnover as dietary protein decreased from 13.6 to 6.1% in one trial in Iran.
Engelhardt and Rubsamen suggested that camels have an absorption rate in their forestomach that is several times faster than the sheep or cow. This ability to reabsorb quickly endogenous urea could operate as an efficient survival mechanism when dietary protein drops.
It also could increase the efficiency of lactating camel cows as compared to other lactating ruminants although this comparison has not been made.
The camel is capable of a diurnal rise in body temperature of 6°C, which allows the animal to work or graze unstressed by high air temperatures. Instead of dissipating all its heat during the hot part of the day by sweating valuable water, the came1 stores heat during the day and then loses it slowly during the night,
thereby keeping warm during the often cool nights. This ability to complete 6 to 8h of grazing during the middle of the day is important if livestock herds must be gathered and guarded from predators and theft at night.
Cattle often suffer from inadequate forage intake in hot climates, because they rest during the midday and are penned at night, which does not allow them enough time to graze.
Camels maintain an active reproductive status up to 20 yr of life. Therefore, in spite of late puberty (5 to 6 yr) and calving intervals that approach 2 yr, camels are still capable of producing as many or more calves as most indigenous cattle under typically sparse and dry range conditions.
The camel has an undeserved reputation as a stupid, stubborn, and mean animal that only nomads can utilize. Camels can be handled, restrained, and trained easily for any domestic purpose and are trained easily for riding, baggage, and draft. It is possible to break four camels for riding in the time it normally takes to break one horse for the same purpose.
Camels are friendly and docile if they are kept in managed herds; they can be trained easily for hand milking. The camel can detect good pastures and wells. It also can remember where to find them again, even when they are several hundred kilometers away. Camels possess a strong mothering instinct, which is important in the dense African bush.