When you think about the camels, camels’ humps often come into sight. We are all aware that these animals can do without a drink for a long period. You might not be aware that they do not store their water in their humps with the animals are going for a long period without taking a drink. But they do not store water in humps. Instead, their humps are made of fat which can be easily converted to energy when they don’t have access to food for survival.

Humps

The ancient camel question is: one hump or two? There are two types of camels: dromedary camels, which have one hump (existing in Africa and the Middle East), and Bactrian camels, which have two humps.

Here in the United Arab Emirates, we have Arabian camels, also known as dromedaries, one hump but they employ it to great effect. The hump stores up to 80 pounds of fat, which a camel can break down into water and energy when this is not available. These humps give camels their legendary ability to travel up to 100 desert miles without water.

Camels can withstand a loss of up to 30% of their body weight in water, which is far more than most other mammals could survive. But they cannot go without water forever. When camels can drink, they take in vast amounts of liquid quite quickly, but they don't store it for later, so it is just enough to rehydrate themselves. To last for prolonged periods in dry areas, camels have also adapted to minimize the amount of water they lose.

Today the camel remains an important part of some local economies, although it has been surpassed by automated forms of transportation for most tasks. Camels are still bred for their meat, milk, and hair, and, beginning late 20th century, the age-old sport of camel racing was revived, particularly in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula.

Camels in Al Ain Farms

Camels occupy a special place in Arab culture, Al Ain Farms has farmed camels since 2001, and today, with 1,800 camels, we are one of the largest camel farms in UAE. All of our camels are one hump camel which are called dromedary, the camels are beautiful with different colors, dark brown, light brown, fawn, reddish or white. The color diversity comes with the landscape and ecosystems. Camels can produce up to 40 kg milk a day, as well as highly efficient in converting feed into milk. Grown with love, we preserve the legacy of Sheikh Zayed by being the only camel farm in UAE to produce camel milk.