Mammals

Wild camels are diurnal, sleeping at night in open spaces and foraging for food during the day. Shrubs and grass form the bulk of the diet, with the animals being well adapted to feed on thorns, dry vegetation and salty plants, which other herbivores avoid. Excess fat is stored in the humps and used as a reserve when food is scarce. This enables the camels to go for several days at a time without eating or drinking. Upon finding water they will drink vast quantities rapidly to replace what is missing from their bodies - they can take in as much as 57 litres of water to restore the normal amount of body fluid. If no fresh water is available, the species can drink salty or brackish water with no ill effects (camels are the only land mammals adapted for this).

Group size is largely dependent on the amount of food available. Usually the camels can be found travelling in small herds of between 6 and 20 related individuals, led by a single adult male, although larger groups will sometimes congregate around water. The distribution is normally widely scattered, with estimates of population density as low as 5/100 sq km. The camels are highly migratory, and will travel vast distances in search of food and water sources. Breeding usually occurs in winter, often overlapping with the rainy season. Females give birth to their first calf at around 5 years of age and the interbirth interval is usually at least 2 years. Wild camels are thought to live up to 40 years of age.

The camels are migratory, and their habitat ranges from rocky mountain massifs to flat arid desert, stony planes and sand dunes. Conditions are extremely harsh – vegetation is sparse, water sources are limited and temperatures are extreme, ranging from as low as -40°C in winter to 40°C in summer. The camels’ distribution is linked to the availability of water, with large groups congregating near rivers after rain or at the foot of the mountains, where water can be obtained from springs in the summer months, and in the form of snow during the winter.

There are approximately 600 individuals surviving in China and 350 in Mongolia. In contrast, there are over 2 million domestic Bactrian camels currently living in Central Asia.

Population size is decreasing. The Mongolian population has almost halved in the last twenty years and there is every indication that the situation is just as serious for the Chinese populations.

Classified as Critically Endangered (CR A3de+4ade) on the 2010 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The species has suffered greatly at the hands of humans. It has lost habitat to mining and industrial development, and has been forced to compete with introduced livestock for food and water. Farmers hunt the camel for this reason, and many individuals are lost every year when the camels migrate out of protected areas and onto land set aside for grazing. Domestic Bactrian camels are amongst the animals introduced to these areas. They graze alongside reserves containing their wild relatives, and there is much concern that interbreeding and subsequent hybridisation will lead to the loss of the genetically distinct wild camel.

The species is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS or the Bonn Convention). The governments of China and Mongolia have agreed to cooperate in order to protect the species and its fragile desert ecosystem. Assisted by the Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF), the two governments have adopted an ecosystem-based management programme which aims to protect the biodiversity of the Great Gobi Desert. Two reserves have been created – the ‘Great Gobi Reserve A’ in Mongolia in 1982, and the Arjin Shan Lop Nur Nature Reserve in China in 2000. These reserves provide a safe habitat for a wide range of endangered desert animals and plants, as well as the wild camels. The WCPF also aims to increase the population of the species through captive breeding. In 2003 it established a sanctuary in Zakhyn-Us, Mongolia, which has some of the last non-hybridised herds of Bactrian camels. Initial breeding attempts have been successful, with several calves having been born since the programme’s inception.

Education programmes are urgently needed to raise public awareness of the potential negative effects of cross-breeding between the wild camels and their domestic relatives. Protected area laws need to be enforced to prevent encroachment and illegal mining in the reserves. Individuals from the Mongolian reserve frequently migrate across the border to China, where they are either killed by hunters or from eating vegetation poisoned by potassium cyanide (a by-product from the illegal gold mining that occurs here). The WCPF have therefore proposed the establishment of a second reserve in China to protect these animals.

The Wild Camel Protection Foundation
A United Kingdom registered charity (est. 1997), with Jane Goodall as its patron. The foundation aims to protect the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus ferus) and its habitat in the fragile and unique desert ecosystems in the Gobi and Gashun Gobi deserts in North West China and South West Mongolia.

Hare, J. 2004. The Wild Bactrian Camel, a Critically Endangered Species. Endangered Species Update 21(1): 32-35.

Hare, J. 2008. Camelus ferus. In: 2010 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. Downloaded on 12 November 2010.

Nowak, R.M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World. Sixth edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.

The Wild Camel Protection Foundation. (July 2005).

Distribution map based on data provided by the IUCN Global Mammal Assessment.