When you are in Jordan you will meet a few camels. Beauty, camel, There is no ugly camel. You are going to meet these mammal ships of the desert can drink up to 40 gallons of water at one sitting. That fat from the hump is metabolized when food and water aren’t available, how great would that be. Did you know that camels are related to Alpacas and Llamas in the Camelidae family. A mature adult camel of about 7 years old, is over 2 metres tall, weighs over 600kg and can carry up to 300kg, so I don’t feel so guilty taking a ride on a camel now that I have read this. You have to feel empathy for a female camel, with a gestation between 12 and 14 months. Camel calves can walk within half an hour of birth and can live up to 17 years. You will be impressed with camels as they can run at about 40km/hr with top speed bursts of 65km/h.
Camels are a symbol of strength, endurance, and persistence. Camels can represent stamina, steadiness, and patience to reach long term goals. Did you know that if you dream of a camel it could represent that you need to persist and work harder to reach your goal? What I would like is a dream of camels carrying a heavy burden as it means that I would be receiving an unexpected riches. Yay, bring that one on.
With their long legs, and small heads they look out of proportion. The rocking motion of their walk comes from both legs on each side moving together.
Do you know your camels? There are 2 types of camels, these dromedaries, one-humped camel or Bactrian with two humps. They are either used as beasts of burden, racing camels or milk camels. As Australia has more camels that the Middle east it actually exports camel milk and live female camels to the Middle East. Australia is about 5th largest camel population with about 1.2 million camels in 2017. Feral camels are a result of the 20,000 camels imported for use in the expansion of early Australia in the 1870s onwards.
Jordan has about 14,000 head of camel which continues to drop even though they are used in the tourism industry.
Beware when you are around a camel as they throw up their stomach contents to distract, surprise anything that threatens it. So look out for bulging checks, it is a warning a spit is on the way.
I will leave you with the last few points about camels. The collective noun for a group of camels is a caravan, flock, herd or train. So here in Jordan a waystation for a camel caravan in Caravanserai. A good camel could cost from A$80,000 to a few million dollars for a thoroughbred racing camel.
