Are Wild Bactrian Camels Still Alive? The Gobi's Wild Camel

The wild camel is a separate species

For most of the 20th century, the wild camels of the Gobi were treated as a wild form of the domestic Bactrian camel and were thought to be its ancestors. Genetic studies changed that picture. They showed that the wild and domestic two-humped camels split roughly 0.7–1.1 million years ago, long before people tamed any camel.

Wild camels are therefore a distinct species, Camelus ferus. The domestic Bactrian camel, Camelus bactrianus, descends from a different wild population that has since died out. Some scientists now prefer the simple name “wild camel” to avoid suggesting the two are the same animal.

Where do wild camels live?

Wild camels once roamed a huge area from the great bend of the Yellow River in northern China west across the deserts of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, and possibly as far as central Kazakhstan. Hunting for meat and hides reduced them to a few remote pockets by the early 20th century.

Today they survive in a handful of places:

• The Lop Nur area of Xinjiang, China, protected by the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve, created in 2000. This is thought to hold the largest population.
• The Gashun Gobi and nearby reserves in Gansu and Xinjiang, including the Altun Shan, Aksai and Dunhuang reserves.
• The Great Gobi A Strictly Protected Area in southwest Mongolia, set up in 1982.

These are some of the harshest landscapes on Earth: stony plains, dunes and bare hills with very little water or vegetation. Summer temperatures reach 40–50 °C (104–122 °F) and winter nights drop to around −30 °C (−22 °F).

How do wild camels differ from domestic Bactrian camels?

At a distance the two look similar, but there are clear differences:

The wild camel’s Mongolian name, khavtgai, means “flat head”, a nod to its flatter skull. Its humps can be about half the size of a domestic camel’s.

Drinking salty water

One of the wild camel’s most remarkable abilities is drinking salty water. In the Gashun Gobi and around Lop Nur, where fresh water is extremely rare, wild camels drink from springs that are saltier than the sea, something few other large mammals can do. Like their domestic cousins, they also eat snow in winter and can go a long time without drinking. How they survive cold winters is covered in How do Bactrian camels survive the cold?.

Wild camels usually move in small groups of about 6–20 animals, sometimes up to 30, led by a single adult male. They travel long distances between scattered springs and grazing areas, and herds may gather into larger groups near water.

How many wild camels are left, and why?

Counting wild camels is very difficult, because they are shy, widely scattered and live partly in restricted areas. Most estimates put the total at around 1,000 animals. The figure most often quoted, from the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, is about 950.

The main threats are:

• Poaching. Wild camels have been shot for meat and sport, and illegal hunting is still reported in both China and Mongolia.
• Mining and development. Illegal gold mining, oil exploration and new roads disturb the camels and can poison their water.
• Competition with livestock. Domestic herds and herders use the same scarce springs and pastures.
• Hybridization. Wild camels sometimes mate with domestic camels, which threatens the genetic purity of the wild population.
• Wolves and drought. Wolves take calves and weakened camels at water holes, and drier conditions increase the pressure.
• Fences. The border fence between China and Mongolia blocks movement between the two populations.

Oddly, Lop Nur was a nuclear weapons test site from 1964 to 1996. The camels there showed no obvious ill effects, and the area’s closure to people may have protected them. Human activity has increased since testing ended.

Is the wild camel Critically Endangered or Endangered?

The wild camel was listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List for more than two decades. In its 2025 assessment, the IUCN moved it to Endangered. Either way it remains extremely rare, and the protected areas in China and Mongolia are essential to its survival.

Conservation work includes ranger patrols in the reserves, efforts to stop mining and poaching, and a captive breeding center at Zakhyn-Us in Mongolia, started in 2003, which keeps a herd of pure wild camels as an insurance population. For how the more familiar one-humped camel compares, see dromedary vs Bactrian camel.