Bactrian camel

Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus )

The Bactrian camel, also called Bactrian Bactrian camel or (Camelus ferus ) is a species of mammal of the camel family ( Camelidae ). As domesticated load and livestock, it is widely used, especially in Asia, the wild stocks, however, are highly endangered.

• 4.1 domestication
• 4.2 The discovery of free-living animals
• 4.3 Protection

Features

Bactrian camels have two humps on their immediate from the dromedary, the einhöckrigen camel, distinguishable. They reach a body length of up to 3 meters, a shoulder height of 180-230 cm and a weight of an average of 450 to 500 kilograms. The tail is relatively short with 35 to 55 centimeters. Their fur color varies from gray to dark brown sand, the longest is the hair at the neck and the throat. During the winter they have a really thick, long coat, which is shed as quickly with an increase of the temperatures that the animals often make a ragged appearance. The free-living animals differ from the domesticated among other things, that her fur lighter ( usually sand color ) and thin and her body leaner and the bumps are more pointed.

These animals have a long neck, on which sits an elongated head. The upper lip is split, as a protection from the weather are the eyes equipped with large eyelids with long eyelashes and nostrils closed. The feet have two toes that are provided instead of hooves with calloused pads like all camels. The stomach is made up like all camels of several chambers, which facilitates the digestion of plant food.

The bumps are not, contrary to popular opinion as water, rather than fat storage. In addition, they have developed some special features that allow them to survive in inhospitable regions: Strongly elongated loops of Henle in the kidneys ensure a strong concentration of the urine and the feces is thickened in comparison to other mammals. A special feature are the red blood cells that are like all camels not round but oval. This form causes camels in no time without the risk of water intoxication ( " watering " of the body ) can absorb a lot of water. Your body temperature is more variable than that of most other mammals and may vary by 6-8 ° C, which significantly reduces the risk of overheating and perspiration.

Distribution and habitat

The original distribution area of ​​the Bactrian extended approximately from the middle of Kazakhstan on the southern Mongolia and northwestern China to the great bend of the Yellow River. In the third millennium BC began the domestication of animals, as pack animals and they are now common in many parts of Asia - where the total population is estimated at 2.5 million copies. They are found from Asia Minor to Manchuria. North of the Bactrian camel to Omsk is widespread in Western Siberia, which is located about 55 degrees north latitude.

The wild stocks were pushed back by hunting and on. In the 19th century they became extinct in the west of its range, since the 1920s, the population numbers also went to the east significantly. According to estimates by the IUCN in 2003, lived only about 950 wild Bactrian camels in three separate populations: in the Taklamakan Desert and the Lop Nor basin in the Chinese province of Xinjiang (together about 600 animals ) and in the Mongolian part of the Gobi Desert ( about 350 animals).

Bactrian camels are adapted to dry habitats. In the winter months they hold preferred along rivers, and hiking in the summer months in dry steppes and semi- deserts. Noteworthy are the temperature fluctuations in their habitat, which can reach -30 ° C to 40 ° C.

Way of life

Social behavior and activity times

Bactrian camels are diurnal, and usually live in harems with about 15 animals. These are made up of one male, many females and the corresponding offspring. There are also living alone copies. The average population density is 5 animals per 100 square kilometers.

Food

These animals are like all camels herbivores that can take all kinds of plants to be - even thorny and salty. The food is swallowed little chewed and first enters the rumen to be digested after the final rumination. This process is similar to that of ruminants ( ruminant ) - to which the camels are zoological not reckoned. The digestive system of camels apparently developed independently of what, among other things shows that the rumen are provided with glands.

Bactrian camels can survive several days without water and add more than 100 liters in a few minutes if necessary. The above- mentioned features help them extremely economical to husband the water, in addition, they can also drink brackish or salt water.

Reproduction

After approximately twelve to fourteen- month gestation period, the female gives birth to usually a single young is born, twins are rare. Most births fall in the months of March and April. Newborns are precocial and Bactrian camels can walk within a few hours. The young animals are weaned around one and a half years; sexual maturity occurs at around three to five years. Life expectancy is estimated at up to 40 years.

Man and Bactrian camel

Domestication

Bactrian camels were probably first domesticated in West Turkestan and northern Iran in the third millennium BC ( 2500 BC ), probably originally as a pack animal. Reports on their endurance give a weight of 170-270 kg, which can be taken per day, around 47 kilometers. However, the products of these animals are used, drink their milk and eat their meat, the fat of the hump is used for cooking and from the fur clothing or blankets are produced.

Almost all of today kept in zoological gardens Trampeltiere are domesticated animals.

The discovery of free-living animals

As the first western scientists of the Russian Nikolai Przhevalsky met in 1876 at the lake Karakoshun in the eastern part of the Tarim Basin between the Taklamakan Desert and Kuruktagh in the Chinese province of Xinjiang on wild Bactrian camels. He managed to catch some animals and describe for the first time scientifically. Sven Hedin found in 1901 in the same area at the Kum- daria near Lop Nor also free-living animals. In 1927, the Russian scientist AD Simukow explored the distribution and habits of these animals. During the late 19th century the area between the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts was inhabited continuously from Bactrian camels, it was mainly due to the hunting in the first decades of the 20th century to the fragmentation of the settlement area in the present-day areas.

Protection

According to official estimates, from 2001 living in China about 600 of these animals and in the Mongolian Gobi Desert, in the sanctuary Southern Gobi Altay Nature Reserve ( = Great Gobi Reserve A), a further 350 salt water camels. 15 wild Bactrian camels in China and Mongolia held - in captivity - where it is known.

In the Red List of Threatened Species IUCN wild Bactrian camels are threatened with extinction as since 2002 ( critically endangered ), respectively. One expects a decline in population in Mongolia and accordingly in China by the year 2033 ( in the third generation after the year 1985) to 84%. The Mongolian sub-population has decreased in the years 1984 to 2006 by 650 animals to 350 animals, the Chinese stock declined in the years prior to 2006 a year by about 20 animals that were killed by hunters or miners.

In the years 1980-1981 the Research Group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences traveled under the direction of Xia Xuncheng the Lop Nor desert and made ​​a map of the range of the salt water camels. John Hare checked the existence of the salt water camels first in 1992 in the Gobi desert Gashun and later in the years 1995-1999 in the Lop Nor desert.

In 1997 he was a founder of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation ( Foundation for the protection of wild camels ), which advocates for the protection of the last living saltwater camels. The Wild Camel Protection Foundation is committed to the protection of the last living wild Bactrian camels. Therefore, planned jointly with the Chinese government an extensive sanctuary for these animals, the financial support from the United Nations Environment Programme United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP ) is supported.

On March 18, 1999, the Reserve Only Nature Sanctuary of China ( Xinjiang Lop Nur Wild Camel = Nature Reserve ) was built by the Chinese State Environment Protection Administration of China (SEPA ) named Xinjiang Lop. It is the size of 107,768 km ² and encompasses both the Lop Nor basin as well as the Chinese nuclear test site Lop Nor. Its boundaries touch three other protected areas: Arjin Shan Reserve (15,000 km ²), Annanba Protected Area ( 3960 km ²) and Wanyaodong (333 km ²). Other sources speak of Arjin Shan Lop Nur Nature Reserve in size from 65,000 sq. km.

2001, monitored by the 15 road access into the reserve only five through checkpoints. The establishment of this protected area for the conservation of biodiversity, the ecosystem and characterized by Yardangs landscape in the Lop Nor was as Project 600 of the Global Environment Facility ( = Global Environment Facility = GEF) funded on November 6, 1998 to 2001, with a grant of $ 750,000. The German share of this grant is 12 % = $ 90,000 ). The autonomous region of Xinjiang Uygur takes over the cost of running the sanctuary including fuel and labor costs.

A threat to this protected area starts from the workers who are employed in the industrial exploitation of natural resources in the basin of Lop Nor, as the protected salt water camels are traditionally hunted for sport or as fresh meat suppliers, although their hunting in China is strictly prohibited. A gas pipeline that should be run underground in east-west direction through the reserve, was finally built outside of the protected area.

Systematics and naming

The Bactrian camel, together with the dromedary einhöckrigen the genre of the Camel (Camelus ), which together with the American llamas and vicuna which the camel family ( Camelidae ). Since Bactrian camels and dromedaries are interbreed and produce fertile offspring can bring ( camel hybrids) to the world, they are sometimes grouped together as the common way - due to the morphological differences but they are done in most classifications as a separate species.

The first description of tram Peltier was made by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 under the scientific name Camelus bactrianus, namely on the basis of domesticated animals. Nikolai Przhevalsky named the discovered by him free-living animals as a new species under the name Camelus ferus 1878. Today, domesticated and wild populations are usually regarded as a kind and called for a special rule of the ICZN as Camelus ferus.

Due to differences in physique and their better utilization salty water are making the wild animals according to some researchers a separate species or subspecies is, which is referred to as seawater camel (Camelus ferus bactrianus ). However, it is clearly a separated for some time, however, the population of highly endangered animals. Genetic studies of Professor Han Jianlin ( Gansu Agricultural University, China) and Professor Olivier Hanotte (International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya) showed that distinguish the genes of free-living animals by 3% of the genes of domesticated animals. For comparison, the difference between the genes of humans and chimpanzees is 5%.