Why does the camel have a hump?

The camel’s best known nickname is ‘the ship of desert’, and it is very well suited to the camel. The camel is ideally suited to the life it leads in the desert, and its best adaptation is its hump.

Although many people know that the camel can go for days, even weeks at a time, without food or water, not many know how the camel manages it. Before a long journey the camel’s owner makes sure that the creature is very well-fed and has drunk a lot of water. The hump at that moment is upright and stiff. When the journey is over, the camel’s hump is loose and flabby. What has happened? The food that the camel ate before it set out was turned into reserves of fat, and stored in the hump, while the water was kept in tiny, flask-shaped sacs in the camel’s stomach. During the journey, the camel used these stores to keep itself going, and when the trip was over, it had to spend a long time getting its strength back.