How Long Can a Camel Go Without Water? Desert Survival

How long can camels survive without drinking?

The dromedary camel, the one-humped camel of Africa and Arabia, is the best-studied desert survivor among large mammals. Research and herders’ experience give a rough guide:

These are typical ranges, not limits. A camel that is resting in shade loses far less water than one walking with a load under the midday sun. Young calves and nursing mothers need water more often than other adults.

The Bactrian camel of Central Asia also goes long periods without drinking, and in winter it can eat snow for moisture. Its wild relative, the wild Bactrian camel of the Gobi, is reported to drink water saltier than seawater.

Why camels need so little water

A camel does not carry a hidden water tank. As explained in What is in a camel’s hump?, the hump is fat. Camels succeed because they lose water very slowly:

• They let themselves heat up. A dromedary’s body temperature can rise from about 34 °C (93 °F) at dawn to almost 42 °C (107 °F) in the late afternoon. It only starts to sweat heavily near the top of that range. The stored heat is released during the cool desert night, without using water.
• Their kidneys are very efficient. Camel kidneys produce a small amount of highly concentrated urine, so little water is used to get rid of waste.
• Their dung is dry. The gut takes back most of the water from food, and camel droppings are dry enough to burn as fuel.
• Their noses recycle moisture. The inside of the nose cools exhaled air and captures part of the moisture in it before it leaves the body.
• They avoid heat. Camels rest in the hottest hours, often lying down facing the sun to shade most of the body, and herds sometimes press together, which reduces how much heat each animal absorbs from the air.

How much dehydration can a camel survive?

The second half of the secret is tolerance. A dromedary can lose more than 30% of its body water, often described as about a quarter of its body weight, and still recover. Most mammals die after losing about 15%. Researchers working in the Sahara in the 1950s, led by the physiologist Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, documented dehydrated camels that were thin and weak but survived and recovered quickly once they could drink.

Where the water comes from matters. In most mammals, dehydration thickens the blood, which slows its flow and makes it hard to carry heat from the body’s core to the skin. In camels, most of the water is lost from the tissues while the blood volume stays relatively steady, so circulation keeps working.

Camels and their relatives are also the only mammals with oval red blood cells instead of round ones. These cells keep moving through narrow blood vessels when the blood thickens, and they can swell a lot without bursting when the camel suddenly drinks.

How much water does a camel drink?

When a dehydrated dromedary finally reaches water, it drinks fast. Animals have been recorded drinking about 100 liters (26 US gallons) in around 10 minutes. In one session a camel can replace the water it lost over many days.

For most animals, drinking such a large amount so quickly would dilute the blood dangerously and make blood cells burst. In camels the water is absorbed more gradually from the gut, and the stretchy oval red blood cells cope with the sudden change. Within a day or so, a camel that looked thin and hollow-flanked can look normal again.

Getting water from food

Much of a camel’s water comes not from drinking but from plants. In the cool season, fresh leaves, shoots and desert herbs can contain a lot of water, and grazing camels may need no other source for long periods. Camels also feed on salty plants such as saltbushes, and dromedaries can drink brackish water that many other livestock refuse.

This is one reason camels can roam far from wells. In central Australia, feral camels can smell or find water from long distances and have damaged pipes and taps in remote communities while searching for it during droughts.

Myths about camels and water

• Myth: camels store water in their humps. Fact: the hump stores fat. Water is held in the blood and tissues, like in other mammals.
• Myth: camels never need to drink. Fact: camels can go a long time without drinking, but they do need water, especially in summer and when working. Without it they eventually die of dehydration like any other animal.
• Myth: camels can drink seawater. Fact: dromedaries tolerate brackish water, but drinking seawater is not normal for them. The report of surviving on very salty water refers mainly to the wild Bactrian camel of the Gobi.

For more animals that cope with heat and drought, see desert animals.