The origins

The camel appeared in North America 40/50 million years ago, and descends from an animal more or less the size of a small dog. Two million years ago it migrated to Europe and Asia and became extinct in its original habitat.

The Camelus is part of the family of the Camelidae which is made up of two sub-species: the one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) and that with two humps (Camelus bactrianus).

The one-humped camel or dromedary is found principally in Africa, Arabia and the Middle East and, although rarely, in some parts of Asia. It provides a fibre that is poor and ordinary which is not used in the manufacturing industry but only for the production of local artefacts.

The two-humped or Bactrian camel is instead found in Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Iran, and is a close relative of the rare wild camel known in Mongolia by the name of  “Khavtgai”.

The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) has two humps and lives in areas with a very cold climate, while the dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) have only one hump and live in desert regions with a hot, torrid climate. There is also a population of so-called “hybrid” camels, which although they live in regions of cold climate have only one hump; these are the “Bactrian dromedaries”, known by the local peoples as “Bukhts”. They live in Kazakhstan and are larger than their relatives. 

Nomads and Breeding

Man began to domesticate the Bactrian camel approximately 4,000 years ago, when it is conjectured that there existed two distinct species: one which was easier to capture and which thus became that bred by man, and the other more difficult to capture and less prone to interact with man. According to this theory, the second species was the ancestor of the present-day Bactrian camel in the wild state.

The camel has played a vital role in the development of commercial exchange between the East and the West, and much more besides. In the twelfth century, when the vast reaches of the Gobi desert halted the advance of the Mongolian troops towards China, the warlords found the Bactrian camel to be a valid ally. Genghis Khan became a legend, and this two-humped animal has remained an integral part of the life of the steppes.

In the centuries that followed, when trade gained the upper hand over local conflicts, the camel continued to be an integral part of the life of these peoples, utilised for centuries in the long caravans that traversed the Silk Road, the route linking China to the Middle East. The caravans traversing this road passed through the region of Bactria, an area of ancient Persia the capital of which was Bactra (now Balkh, a territory located between what are now the states of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan). In this mountainous region, with fertile lands surrounded by the Turanian desert, famous as the place in which the prophet Zarathustra, or Zoroaster,  gathered his first disciples, the breeding of the Asian camel, consequently named “Bactrian”, began approximately 3,500 years ago.

Despite being a slow animal, the camel is one of the five animals venerated by the nomads for moving over long distances. It travels at an average speed of five km per hour, but is easy to manage since it can survive for a week without water and for a month without food. It can also carry heavy loads, up to 250 kg. It provides fibre for making garments and cordage, as well as milk and meat. The Mongolian nomads who normally tend the camels, both in Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People’s Republic ) and in Inner Mongolia (People’s Republic of China) consider fermented camel’s milk to be a true delicacy; this is inevitably offered to visitors by the nomads, and forms part of their ceremony of welcome along with the equally inevitable white shoes of welcome.

The Bactrian camel is bred in the desert and semi-arid regions in the north of China and in the cold uplands of Mongolia. In Inner Mongolia (China) the breeding is concentrated in the district of Alxa Megn, bordering on the Gobi desert.

Despite not possessing remarkable intelligence, from the age of one year the camel is capable of recognising the voice and the orders of its master. Although it serves man faithfully, it is not well treated in return, being beaten both with and without reason.