Bactrian Camel

The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of eastern Asia. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the Dromedary which has one.

Subspecies

There is some evidence that the Bactrian camel can be divided up into different subspecies. In particular, it has been discovered that a population of wild Bactrian camel lives within a part of the Gashun Gobi region of the Gobi Desert. This population is distinct from domesticated herds both in genetic makeup and in behavior. However, the significance of those differences has not yet been firmly demonstrated and may not be definitively resolvable.

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There are possibly as many as three regions in the genetic makeup that are distinctly different from domesticated camels and there is up to a 3% difference in the base genetic code. However, with so few wild camels, it is unclear what the natural genetic diversity within a population would have been.

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Another remarkable difference is in the ability of these wild camels to drink salt-water slush, although it is not yet certain the camel can extract useful water from it. Domesticated camels do not attempt to drink salt water - whether this is because they are domesticated or because they can't does not appear to have been studied at this time.

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