ETYM Oe. camel, chamel, Old Fren. camel, chamel, French chameau Latin camelus, from Greek kamelos; of Semitic origin; cf. Hebrew gâmâl, Arabic jamal. Related to As. camel, from Latin camelus.
Cud-chewing mammal used as a draft or saddle animal in desert regions.
Large cud-chewing mammal of the even-toed hoofed order Artiodactyla. Unlike typical ruminants, it has a three-chambered stomach. It has two toes which have broad soft soles for walking on sand, and hooves resembling nails. There are two species, the single-humped Arabian camel Camelus dromedarius and the twin-humped Bactrian camel C. bactrianus from Asia. They carry a food reserve of fatty tissue in the hump, can go without drinking for long periods, can feed on salty vegetation, and withstand extremes of heat and cold, thus being well adapted to desert conditions.
The Arabian camel has long been domesticated, so that its original range is not known. It is used throughout Arabia and N Africa, and has been taken to other places such as North America and Australia, in the latter country playing an crucial part in the development of the interior. The dromedary is, strictly speaking, a lightly built, fast, riding variety of the Arabian camel, but often the name is applied to all one-humped camels. Arabian camels can be used as pack animals, for riding, racing, milk production, and for meat. The Bactrian camel is native to the central Asian deserts, where a small number still live wild, but most are domestic animals. With a head and body length of 3 m/10 ft and shoulder height of about 2 m/6 ft, the Bactrian camel is a large animal, but not so long in the leg as the Arabian. It has a shaggy winter coat. Smaller, flat-backed members of the camel family include the alpaca, the guanaco, the llama, and the vicuna.