View allAll Photos Tagged countercurrent
The Arctic fox is not just a red fox in different fur. It is different. It is small. Almost the size of your giant well-fed-toaster-oven-sized house cat. That lovely furry tail is for warmth, something to curl around you when the going gets tough. And for this cookie, the going gets cold. With a short snout, and something called countercurrent exchange going on in its paws, these lovely animals flourish in the Canadian north. They are in trouble in Scandanavia where their fur was so prized that the population has not yet recovered from early 20th century hunting.
Wiki says: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_fox
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consideration, and even condoned as a necessa ry price to pay for 'national security..
' Regardless of which party rules,tndividual or groups painted as 'enemies ofthe nation' can be arrested, tortured and eliminated at will -no questions.
asked-in the guise of (national security' and 'war on terror.' .
When fake encounters and fabricated charges of terror combine with the US imperialist agenda of 'war on terror',.
it is a huge boost in the arm for the ideological climate of communal fascism. This is all the more so because it isn't.
linked to one party-the BJP-alone. When prominent and respected media commentators argue that 'law' should \.
be sacrificed for 10rder'; that the Indian spy agencies should be allowed to conduct 'controlled killings'; and thatthe 18 l.
and national security cannot survive unless exempted from obligations to the Constitution; such opinions do not J provoke widespread outrage and are rarely described as .
'fascist.' But these are the insidious ways in which the fascist .\ consensus is created. .
When ruling class parties do raise these issues of fake encounters or custodial killings, there is often a cynical r opportunism involved. So, Salman Khursheed will shed tears for Batla House at Azamgarh during an election meeting,.
or will apologise-in Kashmir-for the Kunan Poshpora mass rape by the Army-at the same advising Kashmiris toforgive, forget and move on. But the UPA Government will resist any judicial probe into the Batla House encounter,and has consistently protected Army personnel accused of rape, be it in Kashmir or Manipur!.
In Delhi, as the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party's election campaign unfolds, similar concerns arise. The AAP didissue a statement on the Ish rat Jahan fake encounter. A letter by Arvind Kejriwal addressed to Muslims in Delhi raises.
the issue ofthe witch-huntof Muslims in false terror charges, and remindsthem that Prashant Shushan is an advocate.
active in the struggle for justice in the Gujarat 2002 pogrom, Ishrat Jahan and Batla House cases. But simultaneously,AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, a singer with a considerable following, has been taking public positions panderingto quiteanother-right-wing, chauvinist -const ituency. On the lshrat Jahan case, he commented on Facebook: "Is lshrat.
.. ahan ·s death bigger than the death of50000 innocents of Uttarakhand?J going on to lament the 'conscien~e-JessooJitics thatslyly knots up the countryJs major problems in irrelevant questions to pitpeople againsteach other.NOnTwitter, Kumar Vishwas was asked, "would like to have Ram Mandir at the site or not?? My question is to Kumar not.
AAP member#, and Kumar Vishwas replied, NEvery Indian wants Ram Mandiratits site except BJP because then they.
will lose an issue ofmaking peoplefoor'. Again, the notion that 'every Indian' wants a Ram Mandir where the Sabri.
\11asjid stood at Ayodhya is a loade-d one, but Vishwas seems free to pander to these sentim ents without being.
contradicted by the MP party .
If one believes that a 19-year~old girl drugged and killed in cold blood by police is an 'irrelevant~ issueJ and that.
because she is a Muslim girl accused in death ofbeing a terroristJ she should be contrasted (as presumably "guilty' and.
'irrelevant') with the 'innocentsJofUttarakhandandchildren ofBiha~ oneshouldnot presume to speak of'democracy~.
""here the life andfreedom ofeach citizen is ofequal value irrespective oftheir identity. We wonder-whyshould theBat/a House issuefigure only in the AAP's letter to Muslims? lsn~tit even more.important to sensitise the non-Muslimson tnese issues? Wouldn't a letter by AAP to its own leader Kumar Vishwas himself be more in orde~ to correct his.
outrageous positions thatare pandering to communal and chauvinist sentiment? .
...J .
Those who defend scams, corporate plunder, destruction of people's livelihood to appease imperialist economicpolicies, fake encounters and custodial killings; those who violate labour laws and trample on industrial democracy,.
those who defend rape and prescribe Lakshman Rekhas for women, those who protect perpetrators of massacres ofDalits, minorities, and adivasis, those who justify impunity for Army personnel who rape and kill in the North East and.
Kashmir -all must be made accountable for democracy to have its true meaning. .
On the eve of Independence Day, let us resolve to challenge the false terms of debate set by the ruling class and.
ensure that the issues of peoples' movements-issues at the heart and soul of democracy-are raised loud andc ear in elections, in public discourse, in classrooms and in the streets. .
16.8. 13 -AnAbridged and edited version of"Towards Lok Sabha 201-1: Putting The Concerns OfPeople's.
Movements Back In The Frame" By Kavita Krishnan. 2-1 July, 2013, Countercurrents.org .
Anubhuti, Vice-President, AISA, JNU Sarfaraz. Jt. Secy, AISA. JNU .
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4 .
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Jiangsu Fanqun HG Rotating Barrel Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Drying Equipment
*GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
Mostly the machine is used in per burning of rigid magnet oxygen Pulverized fodder; it is also suitable for the cement, metallurgy and Chemical industry. It is made up of main kiln body and supporting Drive set cooling pipe and supporting drive set, fuel system, electricity Control secondary air set, exhaust dust set and warm-up kiln body etc.
The machine has function like: Give an alarm for over temperature, give an alarm for over loading, auto control for working temperature, oxygen atmosphere is adjustable in the kiln etc.
When the damp raw material is fed from one terminal, it is turn- ed over through blades that are distributed inside the cylinder and will be distributed uniformly in the drier and contact fully with the countercurrent hot air. In this way, the process of heat conduction is increased. During the period of dry, under the effect of incine blades and hot air stream, raw material can be moved to the star section of drier and discharged from disharg -ed form discharging valve.
*FEATURES
High in the etent of mechanization and strong in production capacity. The resistance for fluid passing through the cylinder is small .The consumption of power and energy is low. It has strong adaptability to the properties of raw material. The operation is stable.The cost of operation is cheap.The uniformity of dried substance is good.
*SCOPE OF APPLICATION
It is suitable for drying the following raw materials. They are granules with heavy specific gravity in chenmical industry, mine industry, meta -llurgy industry such as ore, slag, coal, metallic powder, phosphorus fertilizer, ammonia sulfate.Moreover for raw materials that are granul -es with special requirements,such as HP vesicant,less,light calcium carbonate, active white earth, magnetic powderm, graphite , lag of medicine and raw materials that need low temperature and in batch continuously.
*About Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer
Vacuum drying equipment is a process in which materials are dried in a reduced pressure environment, which lowers the heat needed for rapid drying. Less energy is needed for drying, cutting down on the economic and environmental costs associated with drying a product for storage. Vacuum and Conductive dryer machine are suitable for drying or mixing powder, granule raw materials in foodstuff industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. We sell three types of vacuum and conductive style dryer, such as SZG Double Cone Rotating Vacuum Dryer; HG Rotating Barrel Dryer; FZG, YZG Square and Round Static Vacuum Dryer.
A cuddly Arctic Fox waiting to go inside.
The Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) is common through the Arctic tundra biome. They have adapted to live in some of the coldest regions of the world with their deep, thick fur (which is the warmest of all mammals), a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the circulation of paws to retain core temperature, and a good supply of body fat. THey tend to be monogamous in the mating season and have litters with 4-11 pups. They are oportunistic hunters though their normal prey is the lemming. Their fur is bright white in the winter to blend into the snow better and in the summer their coat is a dull brownish color.
Jiangsu Fanqun HG Rotating Barrel Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Drying Equipment
*GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
Mostly the machine is used in per burning of rigid magnet oxygen Pulverized fodder; it is also suitable for the cement, metallurgy and Chemical industry. It is made up of main kiln body and supporting Drive set cooling pipe and supporting drive set, fuel system, electricity Control secondary air set, exhaust dust set and warm-up kiln body etc.
The machine has function like: Give an alarm for over temperature, give an alarm for over loading, auto control for working temperature, oxygen atmosphere is adjustable in the kiln etc.
When the damp raw material is fed from one terminal, it is turn- ed over through blades that are distributed inside the cylinder and will be distributed uniformly in the drier and contact fully with the countercurrent hot air. In this way, the process of heat conduction is increased. During the period of dry, under the effect of incine blades and hot air stream, raw material can be moved to the star section of drier and discharged from disharg -ed form discharging valve.
*FEATURES
High in the etent of mechanization and strong in production capacity. The resistance for fluid passing through the cylinder is small .The consumption of power and energy is low. It has strong adaptability to the properties of raw material. The operation is stable.The cost of operation is cheap.The uniformity of dried substance is good.
*SCOPE OF APPLICATION
It is suitable for drying the following raw materials. They are granules with heavy specific gravity in chenmical industry, mine industry, meta -llurgy industry such as ore, slag, coal, metallic powder, phosphorus fertilizer, ammonia sulfate.Moreover for raw materials that are granul -es with special requirements,such as HP vesicant,less,light calcium carbonate, active white earth, magnetic powderm, graphite , lag of medicine and raw materials that need low temperature and in batch continuously.
*About Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer
Vacuum drying equipment is a process in which materials are dried in a reduced pressure environment, which lowers the heat needed for rapid drying. Less energy is needed for drying, cutting down on the economic and environmental costs associated with drying a product for storage. Vacuum and Conductive dryer machine are suitable for drying or mixing powder, granule raw materials in foodstuff industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. We sell three types of vacuum and conductive style dryer, such as SZG Double Cone Rotating Vacuum Dryer; HG Rotating Barrel Dryer; FZG, YZG Square and Round Static Vacuum Dryer.
Graffiti from the callejero pirata (“Street pirate”) of Córdoba, who 2 years ago started pasting these mock street sign tiles with philosophical/romantic sayings over the across the walls of the city’s old town. Learn more about them here.
Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus)
It is is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Arctic Fox lives in some of the most frigid extremes on the planet. Among its adaptations for cold survival are its deep, thick fur, a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the circulation of paws to retain core temperature, and a good supply of body fat. The fox has a low surface area to volume ratio, as evidenced by its generally rounded body shape, short muzzle and legs, and short, thick ears. Since less of its surface area is exposed to the Arctic cold, less heat escapes the body - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artic_fox
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
March 25, 2011
Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus)
It is is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Arctic Fox lives in some of the most frigid extremes on the planet. Among its adaptations for cold survival are its deep, thick fur, a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the circulation of paws to retain core temperature, and a good supply of body fat. The fox has a low surface area to volume ratio, as evidenced by its generally rounded body shape, short muzzle and legs, and short, thick ears. Since less of its surface area is exposed to the Arctic cold, less heat escapes the body - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artic_fox
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
March 25, 2011
Davis Strait, Canada
Some of the greatest depths in the eastern Arctic are reached in the southern end of Davis strait. The surface waters are strongly affected by counterclockwise-flowing currents.
Along the west side, an outflow of cold water from the Arctic Basin moves south, at flow velocities of 8-20 km/day, to feed the Labrador current. On the east side the west Greenland countercurrent brings warmer water north. Ice conditions reflect this flow regime, with heavy ice movement and icebergs along the western shore, contrasting sharply with more open water along the Greenland side.
Description
Pneumatic flotation machine is a combination of mechanical agitation and the pressured air from outside, and it is a form of using the impeller to mixing the slurry and dispersing bubble, with the required air provided by the external blower. It is a unit with two tanks back to back connection, which mainly composed of shell, impeller, cover plate, bell-shaped objective, recycling drum, main shaft, central drum and the main air-drum.
1>Structure characteristic: Without mechanical agitator, no driving parts;
2>Pneumatic characteristic: Air charge by the air-charging apparatus, and the size of bubble is adjusted by the aerator structure;
3>Mixed characteristic of bubble and slurry: Countercurrent mixing.
Application: To be handled the rougher flotation and scavenging for those ores who are simple structure, high-grade, and easy for flotation.
Flotation column structure is simple, small build-up area, easy maintenance, easy operation, and power-saving.
"Apparatus consisting of 100 all-glass equilibrium vessels, or tubes, having a capacity of ten ml. of lower phase ... which permits ready access to each tube for filling or sampling and also provides a rapid and efficient method for carrying out the extremely large number of liquid-liquid extractions involved in a simple distribution."
This picture is from a conference paper for the American Society of Brewing Chemists in 1952. Countercurrent distribution of hop constitutes," by FL Rigby,= and JL Bethune, Canada.
This article and many more were collected by DE Bullis and can be found in the Agricultural Chemistry Department Records (RG081)
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consideration, and even condoned as a necessary price to pay for `national security.' Regardless of which party rules, aisa Challenges of Our Times-II.
individual or groups painted as `enemies of the nation' can be arrested, tortured and eliminated at will - no questions.
asked - in the guise of `national security' and `war on terror.' Exploring Independence and Democracy: Unpack The Ruling Class Political.
.
When fake encounters and fabricated charges of terror combine with the US imperialist agenda of `war on terror', Discourse That Seeks to Silence Burning Questions of People's Movements.
it is a huge boost in the arm for the ideological climate of communal fascism. This is all the more so because it isn't.
linked to one party - the BJP - alone. When prominent and respected media commentators argue that `law' should Recent years have witnessed sustained democratic struggles and intense people's movements. There were massive.
be sacrificed for `order'; that the Indian spy agencies should be allowed to conduct `controlled killings'; and that the IB waves of protest against corruption, corporate plunder and the policies that promote it, against rape and rape culture.
and national security cannot survive unless exempted from obligations to the Constitution; such opinions do not and for women's freedom..
provoke widespread outrage and are rarely described as `fascist.' But these are the insidious ways in which the fascist.
consensus is created. Pitched battles have been waged at Nagri near Ranchi and against the Koodankulam, Jaitapur, POSCO, Vedanta projects,.
that threaten to grab land and livelihood and endanger safety. Workers have held unprecedentedly successful mass.
When ruling class parties do raise these issues of fake encounters or custodial killings, there is often a cynical scale all-India strikes, and have struggled against crackdowns on labour laws and industrial democracy, most notably.
opportunism involved. So, Salman Khursheed will shed tears for Batla House at Azamgarh during an election meeting, at Maruti's Manesar factory..
or will apologise - in Kashmir - for the Kunan Poshpora mass rape by the Army - at the same advising Kashmiris to.
forgive, forget and move on. But the UPA Government will resist any judicial probe into the Batla House encounter, Sustained campaigns to expose and demand justice in fake encounter and custodial torture and custodial death cases.
and has consistently protected Army personnel accused of rape, be it in Kashmir or Manipur! and against witch-hunt of Muslim youth are taking place - in the Batla House, Ishrat Jahan, Malegaon and Mecca.
Masjid cases, at Azamgarh and Darbhanga, to name just a few. Efforts of activists have yielded results in exposing.
In Delhi, as the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party's election campaign unfolds, similar concerns arise. The AAP did extrajudicial killings under cover of the AFSPA in Kashmir and Manipur, and Irom Sharmila's heroic fast has drawn.
issue a statement on the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter. A letter by Arvind Kejriwal addressed to Muslims in Delhi raises enormous support in her crusade against the AFSPA..
the issue of the witch-hunt of Muslims in false terror charges, and reminds them that Prashant Bhushan is an advocate.
active in the struggle for justice in the Gujarat 2002 pogrom, Ishrat Jahan and Batla House cases. But simultaneously, Even as perpetrators of Dalit massacres in Bihar were set free, campaigns against the judicial massacres have emerged.
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, a singer with a considerable following, has been taking public positions pandering to quite with new determination. We have seen the struggles of adivasis for justice against massacres masquerading as fake.
another - right-wing, chauvinist - constituency. On the Ishrat Jahan case, he commented on Facebook: "Is Ishrat encounters in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, and against the atrocities of the Salwa Judum. And in the face of all odds,.
Jahan's death bigger than the death of 50000 innocents of Uttarakhand?, going on to lament the `conscience-less brave women like Zakia Jafri (wife of Ehsan Jafri, butchered during the Gujarat 2002 massacre) and Bibi Jagdish Kaur.
politics that slyly knots up the country's major problems in irrelevant questions to pit people against each other." On and other women who survived the Sikh massacre of 1984, are keeping the struggle for justice alive..
Twitter, Kumar Vishwas was asked, "would like to have Ram Mandir at the site or not?? My question is to Kumar not.
AAP member", and Kumar Vishwas replied, "Every Indian wants Ram Mandir at its site except BJP because then they A Choice between `Governance' and `Secularism'?.
will lose an issue of making people fool". Again, the notion that `every Indian' wants a Ram Mandir where the Babri.
Masjid stood at Ayodhya is a loaded one, but Vishwas seems free to pander to these sentiments without being As the Lok Sabha polls of 2014 approach, the mainstream media and ruling parties are defining the choice before the.
contradicted by the AAP party. Indian citizen as a choice between `governance' and `secularism'- a short-hand description of choice between `Modi.
as equivalent to governance' and `Congress as equivalent to secularism'. It is implied that if we want `governance', we.
If one believes that a 19-year-old girl drugged and killed in cold blood by police is an `irrelevant' issue, and that, should concede that communal violence or fake encounters or corporate land grab are irrelevant questions. And it is.
because she is a Muslim girl accused in death of being a terrorist, she should be contrasted (as presumably `guilty' and implied that if we want `secularism', we must likewise agree to overlook massive corruption, open plunder, opportunism,.
`irrelevant') with the `innocents' of Uttarakhand and children of Bihar, one should not presume to speak of `democracy', and outright repression..
where the life and freedom of each citizen is of equal value irrespective of their identity. We wonder - why should the.
Batla House issue figure only in the AAP's letter to Muslims? Isn't it even more important to sensitise the non-Muslims Must we resign ourselves to this `choice'? Or must we assert that such a `choice' is an affront to the tough questions.
on these issues? Wouldn't a letter by AAP to its own leader Kumar Vishwas himself be more in order, to correct his posed by the people's movements?.
outrageous positions that are pandering to communal and chauvinist sentiment?.
On the eve of Independence Day let us instead strive to unpack the official, superficial discourse of `governance' and.
`secularism', which empties these terms of any democratic content - and define it in terms that are compatible with.
the highest, most consistent democratic norms, with the goals for which people's movements are striving..
.
Those who defend scams, corporate plunder, destruction of people's livelihood to appease imperialist economic The New Myths of `Governance' and `Development'.
policies, fake encounters and custodial killings; those who violate labour laws and trample on industrial democracy,.
those who defend rape and prescribe Lakshman Rekhas for women, those who protect perpetrators of massacres of In the corporate media's language, `governance' and `development' have always meant neoliberal, pro-corporate.
Dalits, minorities, and adivasis, those who justify impunity for Army personnel who rape and kill in the North East and policies (supposedly `good for the economy'), insulated from the compulsions of `populism' (read democracy). And if.
Kashmir -all must be made accountable for democracy to have its true meaning. people protest against what's `good for the economy' but bad for their rights to land, livelihood, labour rights etc,.
`good governance' is supposed to be the ability to control and suppress protests..
On the eve of Independence Day, let us resolve to challenge the false terms of debate set by the ruling class and.
ensure that the issues of peoples' movements - issues at the heart and soul of democracy - are raised loud and It is important to recall that, until the Radia Tapes and revelations of multiple scams spoilt the story, Manmohan Singh.
clear in elections, in public discourse, in classrooms and in the streets. was feted by the corporate media as a model leader representing `good governance.' Similarly, we can recall that until.
very recently, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was the media darling, hailed for changing the old `feel-bad' Bihar script, and.
16.8.13 - An Abridged and edited version of "Towards Lok Sabha 2014: Putting The Concerns Of People's ushering in an agenda of `development' and `growth.' Today, the new corporate-backed superman of `governance' is.
Movements Back In The Frame" By Kavita Krishnan, 24 July, 2013, Countercurrents.org supposed to be Narendra Modi. But in each of these cases, these votaries of `development' are presiding over neoliberal.
policies that are the harbingers of crony capitalism, widespread displacement, environmental degradation and the.
loss of lives and livelihoods..
.
Anubhuti, Vice-President, AISA, JNU Sarfaraz, Jt. Secy, AISA, JNU Intensify the struggle for Doubling MCM! Fight Administrative Insensitivity and Apathy!.
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Support JNUSU's Indefinite Hunger Strike Day3 on Indefinite.
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Minakshi (VicePresident, JNUSU), Akbar (Convenor,SSS), Sandeep Saurav (Convenor, SL), Ishan.
(Councillor, SSS), Sarfaraz (Councillor, SL), Anand, Anuj, Ashish, Azram, Nisam, Ravi Kant, Sayed, Sushil.
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on Relay Day 3 Ashutosh (Convenor,SIS), Sudeep (Councilor,SIS), Abhay, Anjali, Chetan, Danish, Dipti, Fayaz,.
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4 Aug 15-16 Himankar, Kusum, Lakshmi, Manisha, Mohasin, Pooja, Preaksha, Praveen, Ronit, Vijay, Vikash.
..
Davis Strait, Canada
Taken on August 30, 2018 (uploaded 1/9/19)
Some of the greatest depths in the eastern Arctic are reached in the southern end of Davis strait. The surface waters are strongly affected by counterclockwise-flowing currents.
Along the west side, an outflow of cold water from the Arctic Basin moves south, at flow velocities of 8-20 km/day, to feed the Labrador current. On the east side the west Greenland countercurrent brings warmer water north. Ice conditions reflect this flow regime, with heavy ice movement and icebergs along the western shore, contrasting sharply with more open water along the Greenland side.
The Soot Canal was a canal system located at Eidskog in Hedmark, Norway. Constructed in 1849, it has Norway's oldest sluice gates. It was the work of Engebret Soot (1786-1859). It was built to allow timber to be transported (floated) to the Halden sawmills. The canal was 1.5 km long and had 16 locks which extended from Lake Skjervangen at 185 m above sea level up to Lake Mortsjølungen at 201 m above sea level.
The Soot Canal was in operation from 1849 to 1932. The channel consisted of the original 15 locks between Skjervangen and Mortskjølungen. Grasmobanen, a 1460 meter long railroad that hauled the timber between the lakes Mortsjølungen and Tvillingtjern, was also part of the canal system. In 1987, the municipality of Eidskog acquired rights to the countercurrent sluice system and labeled it a landmark attraction.
Text: Wikipedia
15 พ.ค.2562 ผู้สื่อข่าวได้รับแจ้งจาก เพียรพร ดีเทศน์ ผู้อำนวยการฝ่ายรณรงค์ประเทศไทย องค์การแม่น้ำนานาชาติ ว่า ที่ปารีส ฝรั่งเศส เครือข่ายองค์กรด้านสิ่งแวดล้อมและสิทธิมนุษยชนจำนวนมากจัดการชุมนุมประท้วงอย่างสงบ เพื่อต่อต้านโครงการเขื่อนไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำที่ทำลายล้าง ในช่วงพิธีเปิดการประชุมสมัชชาไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำโลก 2562 ที่กรุงปารีส ภายหลังการประท้วง ตัวแทนหัวหน้าเผ่าพื้นเมืองมุนดูรูกุจากเขตป่าอเมซอนของบราซิล ได้พยายามยื่นหนังสือที่สำนักงานใหญ่ของ EDF บริษัทพลังงานยักษ์ใหญ่ของฝรั่งเศส เพื่อตั้งคำถามกับการที่บริษัทมีส่วนร่วมในโครงการสร้างเขื่อนที่ทำลายล้างในป่าอเมซอน แต่ตัวแทนบริษัทปฏิเสธที่จะออกมาพบกับพวกเขา
ในวันอังคารที่ผ่านมา (14 พ.ค.62) การประชุมสมัชชาไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำโลก (World Hydropower Congress) ซึ่งจัดขึ้นทุกสองปีโดยสมาคมไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำสากล (International Hydropower Association - IHA) ได้เริ่มต้นขึ้นที่ใจกลางกรุงปารีส และจะสิ้นสุดลงในวันที่ 16 พ.ค.นี้ เป็นความพยายามของอุตสาหกรรมเขื่อนที่ต้องการสร้างภาพเขื่อนไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำว่าเป็นแหล่งพลังงานหมุนเวียนที่สะอาด และจำเป็นเพื่อให้บรรลุความตกลงปารีสว่าด้วยการเปลี่ยนแปลงสภาพภูมิอากาศ และเป้าหมายการพัฒนาที่ยั่งยืนขององค์การสหประชาชาติ
อย่างไรก็ดี เครือข่ายองค์กรด้านสิ่งแวดล้อมและสิทธิมนุษยชน รวมทั้งขบวนการด้านสังคมแย้งว่า ข้ออ้างของอุตสาหกรรมเขื่อนเป็นเหมือนการสร้างภาพสีเขียว โดยมีเป้าหมายเพื่อขอรับเงินทุนสนับสนุนตามกลไกใหม่ อย่างเช่น กองทุนภูมิอากาศสีเขียว (Green Climate Fund) พวกเขาชี้ให้เห็นถึงโครงการไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำหลายโครงการส่งผลให้เกิดหายนะกับประชาชนและสิ่งแวดล้อม
จากหลักฐานมากมายทางวิทยาศาสตร์ เราจะเห็นได้ว่าเขื่อนเป็นต้นกำเนิดสำคัญของก๊าซเรือนกระจก อย่างเช่น คาร์บอนไดอ็อกไซด์และมีเทน กลุ่มภาคประชาสังคมยังโต้แย้งบทบาทของโครงการไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำในแง่การบรรเทาผลกระทบจากการเปลี่ยนแปลงด้านสภาพภูมิอากาศ ปัญหาเหล่านี้และอื่น ๆ รวมทั้งผลกระทบจากเขื่อนไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำต่อแหล่งมรดกโลกทางธรรมชาติและวัฒนธรรม เป็นประเด็นที่ได้รับการอภิปรายโดยนักวิทยาศาสตร์ นักกิจกรรม และตัวแทนชุมชนผู้ได้รับผลกระทบจากบราซิล โคลอมเบีย เมียนมา และตุรกี ในเวทีคู่ขนานกับการประชุมสมัชชาไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำโลก และจัดขึ้นที่ Town Hall of the 6th Arrondissement of Paris ในวันที่ 13 พฤษภาคม เป็นการประชุมที่จัดขึ้นโดยเอ็นจีโอรวมทั้ง Planète Amazone, GegenStrömung/CounterCurrent, Rivers without Boundaries, International Rivers และ AIDA
ดร. มินต์ซอ วิทยากรคนหนึ่งในที่ประชุมซึ่งเป็นนักกิจกรรมและนักวิจัยจากเมียนมา ซึ่งได้รับรางวัลโกลด์แมนปี 2558 บอกว่า “ความมั่นคงด้านอาหารของประชาชนหลายล้านคน กำลังถูกคุกคามจากแผนการสร้างเขื่อนในแม่น้ำอิระวดี ซึ่งจะส่งผลกระทบต่อที่ดินเกษตรกรรม ที่มีความสำคัญต่อการปลูกข้าวตามริมฝั่งแม่น้ำและในเขตสามเหลี่ยมปากแม่น้ำ”
มีการเผยแพร่แถลงการณ์ร่วมในที่ประชุมคู่ขนาน ชี้ให้เห็นถึงคำสัญญาที่ว่างเปล่าของไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำ และความจำเป็นเร่งด่วนที่จะต้องหาทางออกเพื่อผลิตพลังงานและน้ำที่ยั่งยืนอย่างแท้จริงโดยมีผู้ลงนามในปฏิญญานี้ประกอบด้วยกลุ่มภาคประชาสังคมกว่า 250 กลุ่มในกว่า 70 ประเทศ และมีการแปลออกเป็นห้าภาษา
ในระหว่างพิธีเปิดเมื่อวันอังคารของการประชุมสมัชชาไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำโลกที่กรุงปารีส ตัวแทนของชุมชนพื้นเมือง ขบวนการด้านสังคมและเอ็นจีโอ ได้รวมตัวประท้วงพร้อมกับนักกิจกรรมด้านสิ่งแวดล้อมของกลุ่มExtinction Rebellion ด้านหน้าของซุ้มประตู Espace Grande Arche ในเขต La Defense เพื่อกระตุ้นให้ตัวแทนอุตสาหกรรมเขื่อน ได้เห็นผลกระทบด้านลบของไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำ ผู้ประท้วงเรียกร้องให้เห็นว่า มีนักกิจกรรมด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนและสิ่งแวดล้อมจำนวนเพิ่มมากขึ้นที่ตกเป็นเหยื่อการสังหาร เนื่องจากความขัดแย้งเรื่องเขื่อน “มิเกล แองเกล ปาบอน ปาบอนหายตัวไป เนื่องจากการรณรงค์ต่อต้านเขื่อนไฮโดรโซกาโมซาในโคลอมเบีย ซึ่งยังคงเดินหน้าต่อไป แม้จะมีปัญหาการละเมิดสิทธิมนุษยชนอย่างร้ายแรง” ฆวน ปาโบล โซเลอร์จากกลุ่ม Movimento Ríos Vívos of Colombia กล่าว
ที่กาบอง เขื่อนคินเกเลและเขื่อนชิมเบเลส่งผลกระทบร้ายแรงต่อประชาชนที่อาศัยอยู่ริมฝั่งแม่น้ำ “ช่วงฤดูน้ำหลาก บางหมู่บ้านถูกน้ำท่วมเนื่องจากน้ำเอ่อล้นจากอ่างเก็บน้ำ แม่น้ำได้ถูกเปลี่ยนให้เป็นทะเลสาบ น้ำมีสภาพเน่าเสีย และสัตว์น้ำตาย ไม่มีมาตรการใด ๆ เพื่อช่วยเหลือพวกเราในพื้นที่ รัฐบาลก็ไม่รับฟังข้อร้องเรียนของเรา เป็นเหตุให้เราต้องมาร้องเรียนที่ต่างประเทศ” อัสโซซา หัวหน้าเผ่าพิกมีจากกาบองกล่าว
ตัวแทนสามคนจากชนเผ่ามุนดูรูกุในเขตป่าอเมซอนของบราซิล รวมมทั้งหัวหน้าเผ่าอาร์นัลโด คาบา, อาเลซซานดรา โครัป และแคนดิโด วาโร มุนดูรูกุ ได้เข้าร่วมในการประชุมเวทีคู่ขนาน และการประท้วงช่วงพิธีเปิดสมัชชาไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำโลก ตอนบ่ายเมื่อวานนี้ พวกเขาพยายามยื่นหนังสือประท้วงที่สำนักงานใหญ่ของอีดีเอฟ หรือ Électricité de France ซึ่งเป็นรัฐวิสาหกิจที่รัฐบาลฝรั่งเศสถือหุ้นใหญ่ อีดีเอฟมีส่วนร่วมในโครงการไฟฟ้าพลังน้ำซีนอปที่อื้อฉาวในแม่น้ำเตเลสปิเรส ซึ่งเป็นลำน้ำสาขาของแม่น้ำตาปาโฮ อีดีเอฟยังมีส่วนร่วมในการศึกษาเพื่อสนับสนุนการสร้างเขื่อนยักษ์เซาลุยซ์โดทาปาโฮ ซึ่งจะทำให้เกิดน้ำท่วมในเขตซอเร มุยบู ของชนเผ่ามุนดูรูกุ ตัวแทนของอีดีเอฟปฏิเสธไม่ยอมออกมาเจรจากับหัวหน้าเผ่ามุนดูรูกุ “อีดีเอฟเข้ามารุกรานดินแดนของเรา ทำลายแม่น้ำของเรา ทำลายดินแดนและสถานที่ศักดิ์สิทธิ์ของเรา เมื่อเรามาที่นี่เพื่อยื่นหนังสือถึงบริษัทยักษ์ใหญ่แห่งนี้ พวกเรากลับถูกขัดขวาง เราเสียใจมาก แต่เรายังคงมุ่งมั่นที่จะต่อสู้เพื่อปกป้องดินแดนของเรา” อาเลสซานดรา มุนดูรูกุกล่าว
Jiangsu Fanqun HG Rotating Barrel Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Drying Equipment
*GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
Mostly the machine is used in per burning of rigid magnet oxygen Pulverized fodder; it is also suitable for the cement, metallurgy and Chemical industry. It is made up of main kiln body and supporting Drive set cooling pipe and supporting drive set, fuel system, electricity Control secondary air set, exhaust dust set and warm-up kiln body etc.
The machine has function like: Give an alarm for over temperature, give an alarm for over loading, auto control for working temperature, oxygen atmosphere is adjustable in the kiln etc.
When the damp raw material is fed from one terminal, it is turn- ed over through blades that are distributed inside the cylinder and will be distributed uniformly in the drier and contact fully with the countercurrent hot air. In this way, the process of heat conduction is increased. During the period of dry, under the effect of incine blades and hot air stream, raw material can be moved to the star section of drier and discharged from disharg -ed form discharging valve.
*FEATURES
High in the etent of mechanization and strong in production capacity. The resistance for fluid passing through the cylinder is small .The consumption of power and energy is low. It has strong adaptability to the properties of raw material. The operation is stable.The cost of operation is cheap.The uniformity of dried substance is good.
*SCOPE OF APPLICATION
It is suitable for drying the following raw materials. They are granules with heavy specific gravity in chenmical industry, mine industry, meta -llurgy industry such as ore, slag, coal, metallic powder, phosphorus fertilizer, ammonia sulfate.Moreover for raw materials that are granul -es with special requirements,such as HP vesicant,less,light calcium carbonate, active white earth, magnetic powderm, graphite , lag of medicine and raw materials that need low temperature and in batch continuously.
*About Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer
Vacuum drying equipment is a process in which materials are dried in a reduced pressure environment, which lowers the heat needed for rapid drying. Less energy is needed for drying, cutting down on the economic and environmental costs associated with drying a product for storage. Vacuum and Conductive dryer machine are suitable for drying or mixing powder, granule raw materials in foodstuff industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. We sell three types of vacuum and conductive style dryer, such as SZG Double Cone Rotating Vacuum Dryer; HG Rotating Barrel Dryer; FZG, YZG Square and Round Static Vacuum Dryer.
Davis Strait, Canada
The strait was first explored by John DAVIS, leader of three voyages 1585-87 organized by merchants of London, England.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/davis-strait
Davis Strait, situated between BAFFIN ISLAND and Greenland, is the entrance to BAFFIN BAY from the North Atlantic. It is a large stretch of water over 950 km across at its greatest width and never less than 300 km wide. At the narrowest point, its submarine topography consists of an undersea ridge, a continuation of the mid-Labrador ridge, extending from the coast of Baffin Island to Greenland. The shallowest waters in the strait are found along this sill, from 350 to 550 m deep, before plunging down to abyssal basins on either side.
Some of the greatest depths in the eastern Arctic are reached here (3660 m) in the southern end of the strait. The surface waters are strongly affected by counterclockwise-flowing currents.
Along the west side, an outflow of cold water from the Arctic Basin moves south, at flow velocities of 8-20 km/day, to feed the Labrador current. On the east side the west Greenland countercurrent brings warmer water north. Ice conditions reflect this flow regime, with heavy ice movement and icebergs along the western shore, contrasting sharply with more open water along the Greenland side.
Jiangsu Fanqun HG Rotating Barrel Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Drying Equipment
*GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
Mostly the machine is used in per burning of rigid magnet oxygen Pulverized fodder; it is also suitable for the cement, metallurgy and Chemical industry. It is made up of main kiln body and supporting Drive set cooling pipe and supporting drive set, fuel system, electricity Control secondary air set, exhaust dust set and warm-up kiln body etc.
The machine has function like: Give an alarm for over temperature, give an alarm for over loading, auto control for working temperature, oxygen atmosphere is adjustable in the kiln etc.
When the damp raw material is fed from one terminal, it is turn- ed over through blades that are distributed inside the cylinder and will be distributed uniformly in the drier and contact fully with the countercurrent hot air. In this way, the process of heat conduction is increased. During the period of dry, under the effect of incine blades and hot air stream, raw material can be moved to the star section of drier and discharged from disharg -ed form discharging valve.
*FEATURES
High in the etent of mechanization and strong in production capacity. The resistance for fluid passing through the cylinder is small .The consumption of power and energy is low. It has strong adaptability to the properties of raw material. The operation is stable.The cost of operation is cheap.The uniformity of dried substance is good.
*SCOPE OF APPLICATION
It is suitable for drying the following raw materials. They are granules with heavy specific gravity in chenmical industry, mine industry, meta -llurgy industry such as ore, slag, coal, metallic powder, phosphorus fertilizer, ammonia sulfate.Moreover for raw materials that are granul -es with special requirements,such as HP vesicant,less,light calcium carbonate, active white earth, magnetic powderm, graphite , lag of medicine and raw materials that need low temperature and in batch continuously.
*About Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer
Vacuum drying equipment is a process in which materials are dried in a reduced pressure environment, which lowers the heat needed for rapid drying. Less energy is needed for drying, cutting down on the economic and environmental costs associated with drying a product for storage. Vacuum and Conductive dryer machine are suitable for drying or mixing powder, granule raw materials in foodstuff industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. We sell three types of vacuum and conductive style dryer, such as SZG Double Cone Rotating Vacuum Dryer; HG Rotating Barrel Dryer; FZG, YZG Square and Round Static Vacuum Dryer.
Jiangsu Fanqun HG Rotating Barrel Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer ❤ Jiangsu Fanqun Drying Equipment
*GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
Mostly the machine is used in per burning of rigid magnet oxygen Pulverized fodder; it is also suitable for the cement, metallurgy and Chemical industry. It is made up of main kiln body and supporting Drive set cooling pipe and supporting drive set, fuel system, electricity Control secondary air set, exhaust dust set and warm-up kiln body etc.
The machine has function like: Give an alarm for over temperature, give an alarm for over loading, auto control for working temperature, oxygen atmosphere is adjustable in the kiln etc.
When the damp raw material is fed from one terminal, it is turn- ed over through blades that are distributed inside the cylinder and will be distributed uniformly in the drier and contact fully with the countercurrent hot air. In this way, the process of heat conduction is increased. During the period of dry, under the effect of incine blades and hot air stream, raw material can be moved to the star section of drier and discharged from disharg -ed form discharging valve.
*FEATURES
High in the etent of mechanization and strong in production capacity. The resistance for fluid passing through the cylinder is small .The consumption of power and energy is low. It has strong adaptability to the properties of raw material. The operation is stable.The cost of operation is cheap.The uniformity of dried substance is good.
*SCOPE OF APPLICATION
It is suitable for drying the following raw materials. They are granules with heavy specific gravity in chenmical industry, mine industry, meta -llurgy industry such as ore, slag, coal, metallic powder, phosphorus fertilizer, ammonia sulfate.Moreover for raw materials that are granul -es with special requirements,such as HP vesicant,less,light calcium carbonate, active white earth, magnetic powderm, graphite , lag of medicine and raw materials that need low temperature and in batch continuously.
*About Vacuum and Conductive Style Dryer
Vacuum drying equipment is a process in which materials are dried in a reduced pressure environment, which lowers the heat needed for rapid drying. Less energy is needed for drying, cutting down on the economic and environmental costs associated with drying a product for storage. Vacuum and Conductive dryer machine are suitable for drying or mixing powder, granule raw materials in foodstuff industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc. We sell three types of vacuum and conductive style dryer, such as SZG Double Cone Rotating Vacuum Dryer; HG Rotating Barrel Dryer; FZG, YZG Square and Round Static Vacuum Dryer.
.
The Communist State As A "Developmental Terrorist".
.
By Aseem Shrivastava.
.
08 December, 2006.
.
The sorrows of Singur are typical of India's feudal globalization.
.
"Will I be allowed to harvest the paddy that is still growing in my field or will the police attack me again?".
.
- Bharati Das, who was brutally assaulted by the West Bengal Police in her own home last week because she resisted the forced acquisition.
of her land by the state for purposes of industrialization, speaking to the press in New Delhi, December 7, 2006, left hand bandaged.
and tears in her eyes..
.
The iron law of opportunistic pedestrians and motorists applies universally to political parties and their leaders in "the world's largest.
democracy". As pedestrians (read: party in opposition) they are quick to feel the assault on their rights by cars (read: party in power).
clipping past. But when riding in their own fast cars (occupying high offices themselves), the challenges put to them by the opposition.
strike them as "obstacles to development". The latest instance of this wonderful democratic practice comes from the state of West Bengal.
which has been governed by the Communists (CPI-M) since 1977..
.
Over the years since the beginning of economic reforms in India in 1991, few groups have been as critical of land-grab by governments and.
corporations in India as the CPI-M. But now they too seem to have joined the party of globalizing dreamers of this upstart superpower,.
all but blind to their naked hypocrisy. The most recent example of their misplaced zeal for human rights has been the ban on Rickshaws.
in Kolkata without arranging for the re-employment of the people who have lost their livelihoods. The story of Singur is the other..
.
The siege of Singur: corporate dictatorship in the countryside.
.
The Singur area is composed of several villages, adding up to a total population of about 20,000 people in the Hooghly district of West.
Bengal, less than an hour away from the metropolis of Kolkata. Three-quarters of the people are literate (an achievement the Commu-.
nists can feel proud about in the Indian setting). 1000 acres of prime agricultural land are being acquired by the West Bengal Industrial.
Development Corporation and sold cheaply to the Tatas (of rear-of-the-trucks "OK TATA" fame), one of the oldest business houses in.
India and a leading global player in the Indian corporate landscape. They are planning to use the acquired land to set up a plant to man-.
ufacture a "people's car", which is expected to bring in export earnings too. The $220 million project is claimed to generate over 10,000.
jobs - directly and through secondary effects - in the future. However, according to the industries minister Nirupam Sen, the villagers.
themselves do not have the training and expertise needed to find employment in the project. Tatas were given the contract when they.
threatened to go to some other Indian province with their capital..
.
Not surprisingly, Sen is called jamir dalal (land broker) by the villagers ever since he set about trying to convince them that it is econom-.
ically more lucrative for them to sell their land to the state than to continue to cultivate it when agriculture is becoming increasingly less.
"cost-effective" (the set of national and Western policies that have led us to this point not being an item of discussion for obvious reasons)..
.
The Communist government's decision to acquire the land for the Tatas had already been taken by this past summer. The process of.
convincing the local population and negotiating compensation for them has followed as a fait accompli thereafter, increasingly the norm.
in India's conveniently feudal democracy. Among the government's seemingly attractive terms to the villagers is a land rate which is.
supposedly 30% above the "market price" (though it's unclear how fair a measure that is of a poor family's long-term asset like land)..
Voluntary sales of land have been offered an additional premium of 10%..
.
Yet, villagers have been wise enough to refuse to sell their land in most cases, contrary to the claims of the state government. Thousands.
of them have demonstrated on a number of occasions since June to register their protest. On one occasion 1000 women spearheaded a.
rally at the Block Development Officer's office. The Durgapur Expressway was blocked one day by farmers wielding sickles. In May last,.
a convoy of Tata Officials was blocked by women, men and children from the local villages. The police had to whisk them away. When.
they returned it was under heavy armed escort..
.
For the past several months normal village life has been disrupted. A local farmer was killed in a police assault on a protest demonstration.
in September. Armed policemen and security forces continue to patrol the villages in the area, restricting the free movement of people.
near their own homes. Children are unable to play outside, women don't feel safe bathing in the ponds, nobody steps out after dark..
.
A local resistance front, Krishi Jomi Bachao (Save agricultural land campaign) has been set up to challenge the assault by the Corpo-.
rate-Communist state. The most important local festival Durga Puja was not observed this year. On one occasion no household in the.
village cooked for one day to register their protest. In September, local women farmers, brandishing brooms and sticks lay on the earth.
to prevent the police from entering the area. State absurdity can be judged from the fact that a 2-year-old girl was charged with rioting..
..
Davis Strait, Canada
The strait was first explored by John DAVIS, leader of three voyages 1585-87 organized by merchants of London, England.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/davis-strait
Davis Strait, situated between BAFFIN ISLAND and Greenland, is the entrance to BAFFIN BAY from the North Atlantic. It is a large stretch of water over 950 km across at its greatest width and never less than 300 km wide. At the narrowest point, its submarine topography consists of an undersea ridge, a continuation of the mid-Labrador ridge, extending from the coast of Baffin Island to Greenland. The shallowest waters in the strait are found along this sill, from 350 to 550 m deep, before plunging down to abyssal basins on either side.
Some of the greatest depths in the eastern Arctic are reached here (3660 m) in the southern end of the strait. The surface waters are strongly affected by counterclockwise-flowing currents.
Along the west side, an outflow of cold water from the Arctic Basin moves south, at flow velocities of 8-20 km/day, to feed the Labrador current. On the east side the west Greenland countercurrent brings warmer water north. Ice conditions reflect this flow regime, with heavy ice movement and icebergs along the western shore, contrasting sharply with more open water along the Greenland side.
Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus)
It is is a small fox native to Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. The Arctic Fox lives in some of the most frigid extremes on the planet. Among its adaptations for cold survival are its deep, thick fur, a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the circulation of paws to retain core temperature, and a good supply of body fat. The fox has a low surface area to volume ratio, as evidenced by its generally rounded body shape, short muzzle and legs, and short, thick ears. Since less of its surface area is exposed to the Arctic cold, less heat escapes the body - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artic_fox
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
March 25, 2011
The Channel Islands Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus) only exists on the islands of Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Anacapa off the coast of Southern California. During the last glacial maximum, these four islands were connected and known by the singular name of Santarosae (Santa Rosae). During this time period this island was only about 5 miles from mainland California. The most likely explanation for initial colonization was rafting across this narrow straight by the closely related, and currently recognized species, B. major, via the Southern California Countercurrent.
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A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia. Both species have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.
The term "camel" is derived via Latin and Greek (camelus and κάμηλος kamēlos respectively) from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl.
"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the two true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.
BIOLOGY
The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m at the shoulder and 2.15 m at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h. Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg.
The male dromedary camel has in its throat an organ called a dulla, a large, inflatable sac he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind. The male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.
ECOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTIONS
Camels do not directly store water in their humps as was once commonly believed. The humps are actually reservoirs of fatty tissue: concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes the insulating effect fat would have if distributed over the rest of their bodies, helping camels survive in hot climates. When this tissue is metabolized, it yields more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.
Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water. Unlike other mammals, their red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600 kg camel can drink 200 L of water in three minutes.
Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C at dawn and steadily increases to 40 °C by sunset, before they cool off at night again. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a rete mirabile, a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain. Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight to sweating, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.
When the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.
The camels' thick coats insulate them from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn. The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 °C. Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.
Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their transparent third eyelid. The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.
The kidneys and intestines of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel feces are so dry that they do not require drying when the Bedouins use them to fuel fires.
Camels' immune system differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped antibody molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50 million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs.
GENETICS
The karyotypes of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups, but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study flow sorted camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotime consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The Y is a small metacentric chromosome, while the X is a large metacentric chromosome.The hybrid camel, a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation 4–12 cm deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is 2.15 m at the shoulder and 2.32 m tall at the hump. It weighs an average of 650 kg and can carry around 400 to 450 kg, which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can. According to molecular data, the New World and Old World camelids diverged 11 million years ago. In spite of this, these species can still hybridize and produce fertile offspring. The cama is a camel–llama hybrid bred by scientists who wanted to see how closely related the parent species were. Scientists collected semen from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with gonadotrophin injections. The cama has ears halfway between the length of camel and llama ears, no hump, longer legs than the llama, and partially cloven hooves. According to cama breeder Lulu Skidmore, cama have "the fleece of the llamas" and "the strength and patience of the camel". Like the mule, camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.
EVOLUTION
The earliest known camel, called Protylopus, lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the Eocene). It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. The hoofed Stenomylus, which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked Aepycamelus evolved in the Miocene.
The direct ancestor of all modern camels, Procamelus, existed in the upper Miocone and lower Pliocene. Around 3–5 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to guanacos and related animals, and to Asia via the Bering land bridge. Surprising finds of fossil Paracamelus on Ellesmere Island beginning in 2006 in the high Canadian Arctic indicate the dromedary is descended from a larger, boreal browser whose hump may have evolved as an adaptation in a cold climate. This creature is estimated to have stood around nine feet tall.
The last camel native to North America was Camelops hesternus, which vanished along with horses, short-faced bears, mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths, sabertooth cats, and many other megafauna, coinciding with the migration of humans from Asia.
DOMESTICATION
Most camels surviving today are domesticated. Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of Native Americans from Asia into North America, 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. The only wild camels left are the Bactrian camels of the Gobi Desert.
Like the horse, before their extinction in their native land, camels spread across the Bering land bridge, moving the opposite direction from the Asian immigration to America, to survive in the Old World and eventually be domesticated and spread globally by humans.
Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia and southern Arabia, around 3,000 BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC, as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran.
Discussions concerning camel domestication in Mesopotamia are often related to mentions of camels in the Hebrew Bible. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J for instance mentions that "In accord with patriarchal traditions, cylinder seals from Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamia showed riders seated upon camels."
Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that the bactrian camel was domesticated by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the Zagros Mountains, then moving into Mesopotamia, and suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel." while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to Canaan.
Recent excavations in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. This garnered considerable media coverage as it was described as evidence that the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.
The existence of camels in Mesopotamia but not in Israel is not a new idea. According to an article in Time Magazine, the historian Richard Bulliet wrote in his 1975 book "The Camel and the Wheel" that "the occasional mention of camels in patriarchal narratives does not mean that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that period." The archaeologist William F. Albright writing even earlier saw camels in the Bible as an anachronism. The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph notes that "The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the southern Levant signifies a crucial juncture in the history of the region; it substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112-116; Jasmin 2005). This, together with the depiction of camels in the Patriarchal narrative, has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558-584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early Iron Age (not before the 12th century BCE)" and concludes that "Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region - attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I - raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade."
MILITARY USES
By at least 1200 BC, the first camel saddles had appeared, and Bactrian camels could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500–100 BC, Bactrian camels attained military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC, the military Arabian saddle appeared, which improved the saddle design again slightly.
Camel cavalries have been used in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and into modern-day Border Security Force of India (though as of July 2012, the BSF has planned the replacement of camels with ATVs). The first use of camel cavalries was in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.
In the East Roman Empire, the Romans used auxiliary forces known as dromedarii, whom they recruited in desert provinces. The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close ranges (horses are afraid of the camels' scent), a quality famously employed by the Achaemenid Persians when fighting Lydia in the Battle of Thymbra.
19th and 20th CENTURIES
The United States Army established the U.S. Camel Corps, which was stationed in California in the late 19th century. One may still see stables at the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum. Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success (John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the American Civil War saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.
France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding Tuareg and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed. The camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.
In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the Senussi, but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.
In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.
The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.
Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region.
The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World Wars I and II.
The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.
FOOD USES
DAIRY
Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal in and of itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month. Camel milk is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and immunoglobulins; compared to cow's milk, it is lower in fat and lactose, and higher in potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Bedouins believe the curative powers of camel milk are enhanced if the camel's diet consists of certain desert plants. Camel milk can readily be made into a drinkable yogurt, as well as butter or cheese, though the yields for cheese tend to be low.
Camel milk cannot be made into butter by the traditional churning method. It can be made if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added. Until recently, camel milk could not be made into camel cheese because rennet was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of curds. Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant. The sale of camel cheese is limited owing to the small output of the few dairies producing camel cheese and the absence of camel cheese in local (West African) markets. Cheese imports from countries that traditionally breed camels are difficult to obtain due to restrictions on dairy imports from these regions.
Additionally, camel milk has been made into ice cream in a Netherlands camel farm.
MEAT
A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh 300–400 kg, while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to 650 kg. The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between 250 and 350 kg. The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy. The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel. Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough, although camel meat becomes more tender the more it is cooked. The Abu Dhabi Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste. In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare nihari from camel meat. In Syria and Egypt, there are specialist camel butchers.
Camel meat has been eaten for centuries. It has been recorded by ancient Greek writers as an available dish at banquets in ancient Persia, usually roasted whole. The ancient Roman emperor Heliogabalus enjoyed camel's heel.[31] Camel meat is still eaten in certain regions, including Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and other arid regions where alternative forms of protein may be limited or where camel meat has had a long cultural history. Camel blood is also consumable, as is the case among pastoralists in northern Kenya, where camel blood is drunk with milk and acts as a key source of iron, vitamin D, salts and minerals. Camel meat is also occasionally found in Australian cuisine: for example, a camel lasagna is available in Alice Springs.
A 2005 report issued jointly by the Saudi Ministry of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details cases of human bubonic plague resulting from the ingestion of raw camel liver.
RELIGION
ISLAM
Camel meat is halal for Muslims. However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform wudhu (ablution) before the next time they pray after eating camel meat.
Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it haraam for a Muslim to perform salat in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of shaytan.
According to Suni ahadith collected by Bukhari and Muslim, Muhammad ordered a certain group of people to drink camel milk and urine as a medicine. However, according to Abū Ḥanīfa, the drinking of camel urine, while not forbidden (ḥaram), is disliked (makrūh) in Islam.
Camel urine is sold as traditional medicine in shops in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid's IslamQA.info recommends camel urine as beneficial to curing certain diseases and to human health and cited Ahadith and scientific studies as justification. King Abdulaziz University researcher Dr. Faten Abdel-Rajman Khorshid has claimed that cancer and other diseases could be treated with camel urine as recommended by the Prophet. The United Arab Emirates "Arab Science and Technology Foundation" reported that cancer could be treated with camel urine. Camel urine was also prescribed as a treatment by Zaghloul El-Naggar, a religious scholar. Camel urine is the only urine which is permitted to be drunk according to the Hanbali madhhab of Sunni Islam. The World Health Organization said that camel urine consumption may be a factor in the spread of the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf Times writer Ahmad al-Sayyed wrote that various afflictions are dealt with camel urine by people. Dandruff, scalp ailments, hair, sores, and wounds were recommended to be treated with camel urine by Ibn Sina. Arab American University Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology Bashar Saad (PhD) along with Omar Said (PhD) wrote that medicinal use of camel urine is approved of and promoted by Islam since it was recommended by the prophet. A test on mice found that cytotoxic effects similar to cyclophosphamide were induced on bone marrow by camel urine. Besides for consumption as a medicinal drink, camel urine is believed to help treat hair. Bites from insects were warded off with camel urine, which also served as a shampoo. Camel urine is also used to help treat asthma, infections, treat hair, sores, hair growth and boost libido.
Several Sunni Ahadith mention drinking camel urine. Some Shia criticized Wahhabis for camel urine treatment. Shia scholars also recommend the medicinal use of camel urine. Shia Hadith on Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq reported that shortness of breath (asthma) was treated with camel urine. Shia Marja Ayatollah Sistani said that for medicinal purposes only, sheep, cow, and camel urine can be drunk.
JUDAISM
According to Jewish tradition, camel meat and milk are not kosher. Camels possess only one of the two kosher criteria; although they chew their cud, they do not possess cloven hooves:
Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only part the hoof: the camel, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you.
— Leviticus 11:4
DISTRIBUTION ANDNUMBERS
There are around 14 million camels alive as of 2010, with 90% being dromedaries. Dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Maghreb, Middle East and South Asia). The Horn region alone has the largest concentration of camels in the world, where the dromedaries constitute an important part of local nomadic life. They provide nomadic people in Somalia (which has the largest camel herd in the world) and Ethiopia with milk, food, and transportation.
The Bactrian camel is, as of 2010, reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, most of which are domesticated. The only truly wild Bactrian camels, of which there are less than one thousand, are thought to inhabit the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.
The largest population of feral camels is in Australia. There are around 700,000 feral dromedary camels in central parts of Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This population is growing about 8% per year. Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.
A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwest United States after having been imported in the 1800s as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and imported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.
WIKIPEDIA
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia. Both species have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.
The term "camel" is derived via Latin and Greek (camelus and κάμηλος kamēlos respectively) from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl.
"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the two true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.
BIOLOGY
The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m at the shoulder and 2.15 m at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h. Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg.
The male dromedary camel has in its throat an organ called a dulla, a large, inflatable sac he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind. The male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.
ECOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTIONS
Camels do not directly store water in their humps as was once commonly believed. The humps are actually reservoirs of fatty tissue: concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes the insulating effect fat would have if distributed over the rest of their bodies, helping camels survive in hot climates. When this tissue is metabolized, it yields more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.
Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water. Unlike other mammals, their red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600 kg camel can drink 200 L of water in three minutes.
Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C at dawn and steadily increases to 40 °C by sunset, before they cool off at night again. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a rete mirabile, a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain. Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight to sweating, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.
When the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.
The camels' thick coats insulate them from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn. The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 °C. Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.
Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their transparent third eyelid. The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.
The kidneys and intestines of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel feces are so dry that they do not require drying when the Bedouins use them to fuel fires.
Camels' immune system differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped antibody molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50 million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs.
GENETICS
The karyotypes of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups, but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study flow sorted camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotime consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The Y is a small metacentric chromosome, while the X is a large metacentric chromosome.The hybrid camel, a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation 4–12 cm deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is 2.15 m at the shoulder and 2.32 m tall at the hump. It weighs an average of 650 kg and can carry around 400 to 450 kg, which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can. According to molecular data, the New World and Old World camelids diverged 11 million years ago. In spite of this, these species can still hybridize and produce fertile offspring. The cama is a camel–llama hybrid bred by scientists who wanted to see how closely related the parent species were. Scientists collected semen from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with gonadotrophin injections. The cama has ears halfway between the length of camel and llama ears, no hump, longer legs than the llama, and partially cloven hooves. According to cama breeder Lulu Skidmore, cama have "the fleece of the llamas" and "the strength and patience of the camel". Like the mule, camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.
EVOLUTION
The earliest known camel, called Protylopus, lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the Eocene). It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. The hoofed Stenomylus, which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked Aepycamelus evolved in the Miocene.
The direct ancestor of all modern camels, Procamelus, existed in the upper Miocone and lower Pliocene. Around 3–5 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to guanacos and related animals, and to Asia via the Bering land bridge. Surprising finds of fossil Paracamelus on Ellesmere Island beginning in 2006 in the high Canadian Arctic indicate the dromedary is descended from a larger, boreal browser whose hump may have evolved as an adaptation in a cold climate. This creature is estimated to have stood around nine feet tall.
The last camel native to North America was Camelops hesternus, which vanished along with horses, short-faced bears, mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths, sabertooth cats, and many other megafauna, coinciding with the migration of humans from Asia.
DOMESTICATION
Most camels surviving today are domesticated. Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of Native Americans from Asia into North America, 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. The only wild camels left are the Bactrian camels of the Gobi Desert.
Like the horse, before their extinction in their native land, camels spread across the Bering land bridge, moving the opposite direction from the Asian immigration to America, to survive in the Old World and eventually be domesticated and spread globally by humans.
Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia and southern Arabia, around 3,000 BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC, as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran.
Discussions concerning camel domestication in Mesopotamia are often related to mentions of camels in the Hebrew Bible. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J for instance mentions that "In accord with patriarchal traditions, cylinder seals from Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamia showed riders seated upon camels."
Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that the bactrian camel was domesticated by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the Zagros Mountains, then moving into Mesopotamia, and suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel." while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to Canaan.
Recent excavations in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. This garnered considerable media coverage as it was described as evidence that the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.
The existence of camels in Mesopotamia but not in Israel is not a new idea. According to an article in Time Magazine, the historian Richard Bulliet wrote in his 1975 book "The Camel and the Wheel" that "the occasional mention of camels in patriarchal narratives does not mean that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that period." The archaeologist William F. Albright writing even earlier saw camels in the Bible as an anachronism. The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph notes that "The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the southern Levant signifies a crucial juncture in the history of the region; it substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112-116; Jasmin 2005). This, together with the depiction of camels in the Patriarchal narrative, has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558-584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early Iron Age (not before the 12th century BCE)" and concludes that "Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region - attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I - raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade."
MILITARY USES
By at least 1200 BC, the first camel saddles had appeared, and Bactrian camels could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500–100 BC, Bactrian camels attained military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC, the military Arabian saddle appeared, which improved the saddle design again slightly.
Camel cavalries have been used in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and into modern-day Border Security Force of India (though as of July 2012, the BSF has planned the replacement of camels with ATVs). The first use of camel cavalries was in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.
In the East Roman Empire, the Romans used auxiliary forces known as dromedarii, whom they recruited in desert provinces. The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close ranges (horses are afraid of the camels' scent), a quality famously employed by the Achaemenid Persians when fighting Lydia in the Battle of Thymbra.
19th and 20th CENTURIES
The United States Army established the U.S. Camel Corps, which was stationed in California in the late 19th century. One may still see stables at the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum. Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success (John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the American Civil War saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.
France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding Tuareg and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed. The camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.
In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the Senussi, but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.
In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.
The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.
Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region.
The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World Wars I and II.
The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.
FOOD USES
DAIRY
Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal in and of itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month. Camel milk is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and immunoglobulins; compared to cow's milk, it is lower in fat and lactose, and higher in potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Bedouins believe the curative powers of camel milk are enhanced if the camel's diet consists of certain desert plants. Camel milk can readily be made into a drinkable yogurt, as well as butter or cheese, though the yields for cheese tend to be low.
Camel milk cannot be made into butter by the traditional churning method. It can be made if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added. Until recently, camel milk could not be made into camel cheese because rennet was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of curds. Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant. The sale of camel cheese is limited owing to the small output of the few dairies producing camel cheese and the absence of camel cheese in local (West African) markets. Cheese imports from countries that traditionally breed camels are difficult to obtain due to restrictions on dairy imports from these regions.
Additionally, camel milk has been made into ice cream in a Netherlands camel farm.
MEAT
A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh 300–400 kg, while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to 650 kg. The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between 250 and 350 kg. The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy. The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel. Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough, although camel meat becomes more tender the more it is cooked. The Abu Dhabi Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste. In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare nihari from camel meat. In Syria and Egypt, there are specialist camel butchers.
Camel meat has been eaten for centuries. It has been recorded by ancient Greek writers as an available dish at banquets in ancient Persia, usually roasted whole. The ancient Roman emperor Heliogabalus enjoyed camel's heel.[31] Camel meat is still eaten in certain regions, including Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and other arid regions where alternative forms of protein may be limited or where camel meat has had a long cultural history. Camel blood is also consumable, as is the case among pastoralists in northern Kenya, where camel blood is drunk with milk and acts as a key source of iron, vitamin D, salts and minerals. Camel meat is also occasionally found in Australian cuisine: for example, a camel lasagna is available in Alice Springs.
A 2005 report issued jointly by the Saudi Ministry of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details cases of human bubonic plague resulting from the ingestion of raw camel liver.
RELIGION
ISLAM
Camel meat is halal for Muslims. However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform wudhu (ablution) before the next time they pray after eating camel meat.
Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it haraam for a Muslim to perform salat in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of shaytan.
According to Suni ahadith collected by Bukhari and Muslim, Muhammad ordered a certain group of people to drink camel milk and urine as a medicine. However, according to Abū Ḥanīfa, the drinking of camel urine, while not forbidden (ḥaram), is disliked (makrūh) in Islam.
Camel urine is sold as traditional medicine in shops in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid's IslamQA.info recommends camel urine as beneficial to curing certain diseases and to human health and cited Ahadith and scientific studies as justification. King Abdulaziz University researcher Dr. Faten Abdel-Rajman Khorshid has claimed that cancer and other diseases could be treated with camel urine as recommended by the Prophet. The United Arab Emirates "Arab Science and Technology Foundation" reported that cancer could be treated with camel urine. Camel urine was also prescribed as a treatment by Zaghloul El-Naggar, a religious scholar. Camel urine is the only urine which is permitted to be drunk according to the Hanbali madhhab of Sunni Islam. The World Health Organization said that camel urine consumption may be a factor in the spread of the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf Times writer Ahmad al-Sayyed wrote that various afflictions are dealt with camel urine by people. Dandruff, scalp ailments, hair, sores, and wounds were recommended to be treated with camel urine by Ibn Sina. Arab American University Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology Bashar Saad (PhD) along with Omar Said (PhD) wrote that medicinal use of camel urine is approved of and promoted by Islam since it was recommended by the prophet. A test on mice found that cytotoxic effects similar to cyclophosphamide were induced on bone marrow by camel urine. Besides for consumption as a medicinal drink, camel urine is believed to help treat hair. Bites from insects were warded off with camel urine, which also served as a shampoo. Camel urine is also used to help treat asthma, infections, treat hair, sores, hair growth and boost libido.
Several Sunni Ahadith mention drinking camel urine. Some Shia criticized Wahhabis for camel urine treatment. Shia scholars also recommend the medicinal use of camel urine. Shia Hadith on Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq reported that shortness of breath (asthma) was treated with camel urine. Shia Marja Ayatollah Sistani said that for medicinal purposes only, sheep, cow, and camel urine can be drunk.
JUDAISM
According to Jewish tradition, camel meat and milk are not kosher. Camels possess only one of the two kosher criteria; although they chew their cud, they do not possess cloven hooves:
Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only part the hoof: the camel, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you.
— Leviticus 11:4
DISTRIBUTION ANDNUMBERS
There are around 14 million camels alive as of 2010, with 90% being dromedaries. Dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Maghreb, Middle East and South Asia). The Horn region alone has the largest concentration of camels in the world, where the dromedaries constitute an important part of local nomadic life. They provide nomadic people in Somalia (which has the largest camel herd in the world) and Ethiopia with milk, food, and transportation.
The Bactrian camel is, as of 2010, reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, most of which are domesticated. The only truly wild Bactrian camels, of which there are less than one thousand, are thought to inhabit the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.
The largest population of feral camels is in Australia. There are around 700,000 feral dromedary camels in central parts of Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This population is growing about 8% per year. Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.
A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwest United States after having been imported in the 1800s as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and imported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.
WIKIPEDIA
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia. Both species have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.
The term "camel" is derived via Latin and Greek (camelus and κάμηλος kamēlos respectively) from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl.
"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the two true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.
BIOLOGY
The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m at the shoulder and 2.15 m at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h. Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg.
The male dromedary camel has in its throat an organ called a dulla, a large, inflatable sac he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females. It resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind. The male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.
ECOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTIONS
Camels do not directly store water in their humps as was once commonly believed. The humps are actually reservoirs of fatty tissue: concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes the insulating effect fat would have if distributed over the rest of their bodies, helping camels survive in hot climates. When this tissue is metabolized, it yields more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration (as oxygen is required for the metabolic process): overall, there is a net decrease in water.
Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water. Unlike other mammals, their red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape. This facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600 kg camel can drink 200 L of water in three minutes.
Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C at dawn and steadily increases to 40 °C by sunset, before they cool off at night again. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals; to assist this, camels have a rete mirabile, a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other which utilizes countercurrent blood flow to cool blood flowing to the brain. Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat; the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight to sweating, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance.
When the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.
The camels' thick coats insulate them from the intense heat radiated from desert sand; a shorn camel must sweat 50% more to avoid overheating. During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn. The camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 °C. Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal. When the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body.
Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining, allowing them to chew thorny desert plants. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils that can close, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their transparent third eyelid. The camels' gait and widened feet help them move without sinking into the sand.
The kidneys and intestines of a camel are very efficient at reabsorbing water. Camel urine comes out as a thick syrup, and camel feces are so dry that they do not require drying when the Bedouins use them to fuel fires.
Camels' immune system differs from those of other mammals. Normally, the Y-shaped antibody molecules consist of two heavy (or long) chains along the length of the Y, and two light (or short) chains at each tip of the Y. Camels, in addition to these, also have antibodies made of only two heavy chains, a trait that makes them smaller and more durable. These "heavy-chain-only" antibodies, discovered in 1993, are thought to have developed 50 million years ago, after camelids split from ruminants and pigs.
GENETICS
The karyotypes of different camelid species have been studied earlier by many groups, but no agreement on chromosome nomenclature of camelids has been reached. A 2007 study flow sorted camel chromosomes, building on the fact that camels have 37 pairs of chromosomes (2n=74), and found that the karyotime consisted of one metacentric, three submetacentric, and 32 acrocentric autosomes. The Y is a small metacentric chromosome, while the X is a large metacentric chromosome.The hybrid camel, a hybrid between Bactrian and dromedary camels, has one hump, though it has an indentation 4–12 cm deep that divides the front from the back. The hybrid is 2.15 m at the shoulder and 2.32 m tall at the hump. It weighs an average of 650 kg and can carry around 400 to 450 kg, which is more than either the dromedary or Bactrian can. According to molecular data, the New World and Old World camelids diverged 11 million years ago. In spite of this, these species can still hybridize and produce fertile offspring. The cama is a camel–llama hybrid bred by scientists who wanted to see how closely related the parent species were. Scientists collected semen from a camel via an artificial vagina and inseminated a llama after stimulating ovulation with gonadotrophin injections. The cama has ears halfway between the length of camel and llama ears, no hump, longer legs than the llama, and partially cloven hooves. According to cama breeder Lulu Skidmore, cama have "the fleece of the llamas" and "the strength and patience of the camel". Like the mule, camas are sterile, despite both parents having the same number of chromosomes.
EVOLUTION
The earliest known camel, called Protylopus, lived in North America 40 to 50 million years ago (during the Eocene). It was about the size of a rabbit and lived in the open woodlands of what is now South Dakota. By 35 million years ago, the Poebrotherium was the size of a goat and had many more traits similar to camels and llamas. The hoofed Stenomylus, which walked on the tips of its toes, also existed around this time, and the long-necked Aepycamelus evolved in the Miocene.
The direct ancestor of all modern camels, Procamelus, existed in the upper Miocone and lower Pliocene. Around 3–5 million years ago, the North American Camelidae spread to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, where they gave rise to guanacos and related animals, and to Asia via the Bering land bridge. Surprising finds of fossil Paracamelus on Ellesmere Island beginning in 2006 in the high Canadian Arctic indicate the dromedary is descended from a larger, boreal browser whose hump may have evolved as an adaptation in a cold climate. This creature is estimated to have stood around nine feet tall.
The last camel native to North America was Camelops hesternus, which vanished along with horses, short-faced bears, mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths, sabertooth cats, and many other megafauna, coinciding with the migration of humans from Asia.
DOMESTICATION
Most camels surviving today are domesticated. Along with many other megafauna in North America, the original wild camels were wiped out during the spread of Native Americans from Asia into North America, 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. The only wild camels left are the Bactrian camels of the Gobi Desert.
Like the horse, before their extinction in their native land, camels spread across the Bering land bridge, moving the opposite direction from the Asian immigration to America, to survive in the Old World and eventually be domesticated and spread globally by humans.
Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia and southern Arabia, around 3,000 BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC, as at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran.
Discussions concerning camel domestication in Mesopotamia are often related to mentions of camels in the Hebrew Bible. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J for instance mentions that "In accord with patriarchal traditions, cylinder seals from Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamia showed riders seated upon camels."
Martin Heide's 2010 work on the domestication of the camel tentatively concludes that the bactrian camel was domesticated by at least the middle of the third millennium somewhere east of the Zagros Mountains, then moving into Mesopotamia, and suggests that mentions of camels "in the patriarchal narratives may refer, at least in some places, to the Bactrian camel." while noting that the camel is not mentioned in relationship to Canaan.
Recent excavations in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef discovered what may be the earliest domestic camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. This garnered considerable media coverage as it was described as evidence that the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.
The existence of camels in Mesopotamia but not in Israel is not a new idea. According to an article in Time Magazine, the historian Richard Bulliet wrote in his 1975 book "The Camel and the Wheel" that "the occasional mention of camels in patriarchal narratives does not mean that the domestic camels were common in the Holy Land at that period." The archaeologist William F. Albright writing even earlier saw camels in the Bible as an anachronism. The official report by Sapir-Hen and Ben-Joseph notes that "The introduction of the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) as a pack animal to the southern Levant signifies a crucial juncture in the history of the region; it substantially facilitated trade across the vast deserts of Arabia, promoting both economic and social change (e.g., Kohler 1984; Borowski 1998: 112-116; Jasmin 2005). This, together with the depiction of camels in the Patriarchal narrative, has generated extensive discussion regarding the date of the earliest domestic camel in the southern Levant (and beyond) (e.g., Albright 1949: 207; Epstein 1971: 558-584; Bulliet 1975; Zarins 1989; Köhler-Rollefson 1993; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2002; Jasmin 2005; 2006; Heide 2010; Rosen and Saidel 2010; Grigson 2012). Most scholars today agree that the dromedary was exploited as a pack animal sometime in the early Iron Age (not before the 12th century BCE)" and concludes that "Current data from copper smelting sites of the Aravah Valley enable us to pinpoint the introduction of domestic camels to the southern Levant more precisely based on stratigraphic contexts associated with an extensive suite of radiocarbon dates. The data indicate that this event occurred not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE and most probably during this time. The coincidence of this event with a major reorganization of the copper industry of the region - attributed to the results of the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I - raises the possibility that the two were connected, and that camels were introduced as part of the efforts to improve efficiency by facilitating trade."
MILITARY USES
By at least 1200 BC, the first camel saddles had appeared, and Bactrian camels could be ridden. The first saddle was positioned to the back of the camel, and control of the Bactrian camel was exercised by means of a stick. However, between 500–100 BC, Bactrian camels attained military use. New saddles, which were inflexible and bent, were put over the humps and divided the rider's weight over the animal. In the seventh century BC, the military Arabian saddle appeared, which improved the saddle design again slightly.
Camel cavalries have been used in wars throughout Africa, the Middle East, and into modern-day Border Security Force of India (though as of July 2012, the BSF has planned the replacement of camels with ATVs). The first use of camel cavalries was in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. Armies have also used camels as freight animals instead of horses and mules.
In the East Roman Empire, the Romans used auxiliary forces known as dromedarii, whom they recruited in desert provinces. The camels were used mostly in combat because of their ability to scare off horses at close ranges (horses are afraid of the camels' scent), a quality famously employed by the Achaemenid Persians when fighting Lydia in the Battle of Thymbra.
19th and 20th CENTURIES
The United States Army established the U.S. Camel Corps, which was stationed in California in the late 19th century. One may still see stables at the Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, where they nowadays serve as the Benicia Historical Museum. Though the experimental use of camels was seen as a success (John B. Floyd, Secretary of War in 1858, recommended that funds be allocated towards obtaining a thousand more camels), the outbreak of the American Civil War saw the end of the Camel Corps: Texas became part of the Confederacy, and most of the camels were left to wander away into the desert.
France created a méhariste camel corps in 1912 as part of the Armée d'Afrique in the Sahara in order to exercise greater control over the camel-riding Tuareg and Arab insurgents, as previous efforts to defeat them on foot had failed. The camel-mounted units remained in service until the end of French rule over Algeria in 1962.
In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps. It was originally used to fight the Senussi, but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I. The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements, and was formally disbanded in 1919.
In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels. The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.
The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.
Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region.
The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World Wars I and II.
The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) were an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.
FOOD USES
DAIRY
Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is sometimes considered a meal in and of itself; a nomad can live on only camel milk for almost a month. Camel milk is rich in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and immunoglobulins; compared to cow's milk, it is lower in fat and lactose, and higher in potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Bedouins believe the curative powers of camel milk are enhanced if the camel's diet consists of certain desert plants. Camel milk can readily be made into a drinkable yogurt, as well as butter or cheese, though the yields for cheese tend to be low.
Camel milk cannot be made into butter by the traditional churning method. It can be made if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent is then added. Until recently, camel milk could not be made into camel cheese because rennet was unable to coagulate the milk proteins to allow the collection of curds. Developing less wasteful uses of the milk, the FAO commissioned Professor J.P. Ramet of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, who was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and is easy to digest, even for the lactose intolerant. The sale of camel cheese is limited owing to the small output of the few dairies producing camel cheese and the absence of camel cheese in local (West African) markets. Cheese imports from countries that traditionally breed camels are difficult to obtain due to restrictions on dairy imports from these regions.
Additionally, camel milk has been made into ice cream in a Netherlands camel farm.
MEAT
A camel carcass can provide a substantial amount of meat. The male dromedary carcass can weigh 300–400 kg, while the carcass of a male Bactrian can weigh up to 650 kg. The carcass of a female dromedary weighs less than the male, ranging between 250 and 350 kg. The brisket, ribs and loin are among the preferred parts, and the hump is considered a delicacy. The hump contains "white and sickly fat", which can be used to make the khli (preserved meat) of mutton, beef, or camel. Camel meat is reported to taste like coarse beef, but older camels can prove to be very tough, although camel meat becomes more tender the more it is cooked. The Abu Dhabi Officers' Club serves a camel burger mixed with beef or lamb fat in order to improve the texture and taste. In Karachi, Pakistan, some restaurants prepare nihari from camel meat. In Syria and Egypt, there are specialist camel butchers.
Camel meat has been eaten for centuries. It has been recorded by ancient Greek writers as an available dish at banquets in ancient Persia, usually roasted whole. The ancient Roman emperor Heliogabalus enjoyed camel's heel.[31] Camel meat is still eaten in certain regions, including Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and other arid regions where alternative forms of protein may be limited or where camel meat has had a long cultural history. Camel blood is also consumable, as is the case among pastoralists in northern Kenya, where camel blood is drunk with milk and acts as a key source of iron, vitamin D, salts and minerals. Camel meat is also occasionally found in Australian cuisine: for example, a camel lasagna is available in Alice Springs.
A 2005 report issued jointly by the Saudi Ministry of Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention details cases of human bubonic plague resulting from the ingestion of raw camel liver.
RELIGION
ISLAM
Camel meat is halal for Muslims. However, according to some Islamic schools of thought, a state of impurity is brought on by the consumption of it. Consequently, these schools hold that Muslims must perform wudhu (ablution) before the next time they pray after eating camel meat.
Also, some Islamic schools of thought consider it haraam for a Muslim to perform salat in places where camels lie, as it is said to be a dwelling place of shaytan.
According to Suni ahadith collected by Bukhari and Muslim, Muhammad ordered a certain group of people to drink camel milk and urine as a medicine. However, according to Abū Ḥanīfa, the drinking of camel urine, while not forbidden (ḥaram), is disliked (makrūh) in Islam.
Camel urine is sold as traditional medicine in shops in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni scholar Muhammad Al-Munajjid's IslamQA.info recommends camel urine as beneficial to curing certain diseases and to human health and cited Ahadith and scientific studies as justification. King Abdulaziz University researcher Dr. Faten Abdel-Rajman Khorshid has claimed that cancer and other diseases could be treated with camel urine as recommended by the Prophet. The United Arab Emirates "Arab Science and Technology Foundation" reported that cancer could be treated with camel urine. Camel urine was also prescribed as a treatment by Zaghloul El-Naggar, a religious scholar. Camel urine is the only urine which is permitted to be drunk according to the Hanbali madhhab of Sunni Islam. The World Health Organization said that camel urine consumption may be a factor in the spread of the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf Times writer Ahmad al-Sayyed wrote that various afflictions are dealt with camel urine by people. Dandruff, scalp ailments, hair, sores, and wounds were recommended to be treated with camel urine by Ibn Sina. Arab American University Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology Bashar Saad (PhD) along with Omar Said (PhD) wrote that medicinal use of camel urine is approved of and promoted by Islam since it was recommended by the prophet. A test on mice found that cytotoxic effects similar to cyclophosphamide were induced on bone marrow by camel urine. Besides for consumption as a medicinal drink, camel urine is believed to help treat hair. Bites from insects were warded off with camel urine, which also served as a shampoo. Camel urine is also used to help treat asthma, infections, treat hair, sores, hair growth and boost libido.
Several Sunni Ahadith mention drinking camel urine. Some Shia criticized Wahhabis for camel urine treatment. Shia scholars also recommend the medicinal use of camel urine. Shia Hadith on Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq reported that shortness of breath (asthma) was treated with camel urine. Shia Marja Ayatollah Sistani said that for medicinal purposes only, sheep, cow, and camel urine can be drunk.
JUDAISM
According to Jewish tradition, camel meat and milk are not kosher. Camels possess only one of the two kosher criteria; although they chew their cud, they do not possess cloven hooves:
Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only part the hoof: the camel, because he cheweth the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you.
— Leviticus 11:4
DISTRIBUTION ANDNUMBERS
There are around 14 million camels alive as of 2010, with 90% being dromedaries. Dromedaries alive today are domesticated animals (mostly living in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Maghreb, Middle East and South Asia). The Horn region alone has the largest concentration of camels in the world, where the dromedaries constitute an important part of local nomadic life. They provide nomadic people in Somalia (which has the largest camel herd in the world) and Ethiopia with milk, food, and transportation.
The Bactrian camel is, as of 2010, reduced to an estimated 1.4 million animals, most of which are domesticated. The only truly wild Bactrian camels, of which there are less than one thousand, are thought to inhabit the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.
The largest population of feral camels is in Australia. There are around 700,000 feral dromedary camels in central parts of Australia, descended from those introduced as a method of transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This population is growing about 8% per year. Representatives of the Australian government have culled more than 100,000 of the animals in part because the camels use too much of the limited resources needed by sheep farmers.
A small population of introduced camels, dromedaries and Bactrians, wandered through Southwest United States after having been imported in the 1800s as part of the U.S. Camel Corps experiment. When the project ended, they were used as draft animals in mines and escaped or were released. Twenty-five U.S. camels were bought and imported to Canada during the Cariboo Gold Rush.
WIKIPEDIA