Our next stop in our notebooking safari across Asia takes us to Qatar. If you’re new to the notebooking safari, visit our first stop here.
***
Are you ready to go for another camel ride? Let’s go!
It amazes me how many incredible gifts God gave dromedary camels so they could survive out here in the desert! If you had to live outside, in the desert, with all the hot blowing sand and almost no water, you couldn’t survive. Most mammals couldn’t. But the camel is special.
For one thing, it has huge eyelashes that keep the sand out of its eyes, and it has the ability to shut its nostrils so it doesn’t get sand up its nose! I imagine that would come in pretty handy! There’s something else you have to remember about sand—not only does it cause a mess when it blows around in a storm, but it can also be very hot to touch. Have you ever stepped onto a sandy beach barefooted and discovered the sand was hotter than you expected? God gave camels extra thick and tough pads on their chests and knees so that the hot sand doesn’t burn them when they kneel or lie down.
The dromedary camel doesn’t lose a lot of water through sweat and other bodily fluids because it controls how much liquid it allows to go through its system. When it does have a chance to get a drink, it can drink an enormous amount at one time—even as much as twenty-five or thirty gallons. For some other mammals, drinking that much would kill them. Their bodies simply couldn’t process that much fluid at one time. Their cells would actually explode trying to process so much fluid at one time. But the camel has certain cell membranes that can swell and expand to allow it time to process all of that fluid.
Dromedary camels also have tough lips that allow them to eat thorns and other tough-to-chew plants. This way, whenever they have to eat something to keep their energy up or need the fluid that is stored inside the plant, they have a higher chance of finding what they need to survive.
For your science work today, see if you can find out at least three ways Bactrian camels differ from dromedary camels.
Research challenge: How long does the average camel live?
For a free downloadable copy of the entire Asian animals notebooking safari series (31 units total) plus a notebooking page for each one, sign up below.
Leave a Reply