Breeds of Camel: Kacchi

The Kacchi camel hails from the swampy borderlands of southern Gujarat, where the Rann of Kacch forms a near-impassible barrier between modern Pakistan and India. The only large animal able to navigate these treacherous, misty bogs is the Kacchi camel, whose moderate size and wide feet, as well as reputed intelligence, grant it the ability to pick its way around trouble spots. The Kacchi is used by the Indian Border Defence Force to patrol in this area, but the Kacchi's main use is milk production. The sparsity of vegetation in the Rann led to the evolution of a longer lactational period and higher milk yield-- up to 20 liters a day!

Saddle of camel: North Arabian model

By about 1000 B.C.E. the camel caravan was a common sight throughout the deserts of southwest Asia, regularly ferrying passengers and goods through the oven at the world's crossroads. But saddle designs adequate for carrying loads couldn't support a rider at full tilt. Until camels could be ridden well enough to be used in battle, the caravans were at the mercy of brigands on horseback operating from isolated oases deep in the desert. Between bribes to pass safely and the cost of an armed escort, camel herders were unable to reap the full benefits of the lucrative trade they carried and remained socially unimportant.

A new saddle design completely changed the course of Middle Eastern history. The North Arabian saddle, invented around 300-500 C.E., straddled the hump with a sturdy frame. Cargo could be loaded on and behind the hump and a rider could perch before it, his stability assured and within easy reach of the reins. Furthermore, seated atop the two-meter high withers of the camel, a rider could effectively wield a lance.

Camel herders quickly seized control of the caravan trade from the bandits and city merchants, and soon desert kingdoms emerged across much of Arabia. The most important of these was Mecca, which before 500 C.E. was little more than an oasis. Growing rich off the incense trade, by the time of Mohammed's birth in 570 C.E. it was a regional capital. With economic, military, and religious power in their hands, the camel herders of the Hedjaz were clearly in the ascendant.

Saddle of camel: on hump designs

Riding was never a priority for the first camel owners. When necessary, people and belongings were haphazardly and inefficiently perched around the animal's swaying hump. But early saddling techniques prevented the camel from competing as beast of burden. Besides, there was no need for it in littoral camel-herding communities.

But money makes the world go round, and the high profits to be had from trade with the emerging civilizations of the Mediterranean drove the development of a new saddle. The prevailing winds of the Red Sea make northward journeys inefficient (even the Pharoahs tried to get around this problem), and most pack animals can't handle the distances and temperatures of the Arabian desert.

By arranging blankets and ropes around the hump of the camel, it was possible to stabilize the load enough for profitable quantities of goods to be carried the 2000 miles from Aden to the Levant. It is in just these caravans that camels first appeared in Western literature, with the arrival of the Queen of Sheba bearing gifts for Solomon (I Kings 10:2) and as Rebekah's mount (Genesis 24:61). Soon, camel caravans had taken over trade routes throughout southwest Asia, ferrying goods from the Gulf, Turkey, Persia, and beyond.

The world's first camelid cDNA library

When some scholar desperate for a PhD topic turns his gaze to the history of research on camels, October 25, 2008 will undoubtedly mark a new chapter in his exceedingly tedious and irrelevant dissertation. After a year of research, the Camel Health Unit successfully synthesized the first camel-related cDNA.

DNA, being the stuff of heredity, is safely ensconced inside the cell nucleus. While this isolation ensures its integrity, it also makes DNA kind of useless. In order to get something done, the cell must transcribe instructions (genes) from DNA into RNA, which then passes out of the nucleus to be translated into proteins. These proteins are what actually do things in the cell. So if you want to study how genes get expressed rather than just how they get passed on, RNA is of far more interest, because it reflects exactly which instructions are being carried out when. But DNA is easier to study, so we collect the active RNA, copy it back into DNA, and call it cDNA.

Once you have cDNA, you can do all sorts of cool and godlike things. We're looking at the parasite Haemonchus contortus, a worm living in the camel digestive tract that feeds by digesting hemoglobin. We isolated the H. contortus RNA that codes for the protein responsible for digestion and copied it back into cDNA. Next, we'll insert that cDNA gene into the genome of a small bacteria (called a vector) and see if the genetically modified bacteria can digest hemoglobin. We'll then use that bacteria to design a simple diagnostic that would detect the presence of the hemoglobin-digesting protein in camel blood.

An interesting sidenote: even this advanced work has at its root the same large-level changes I've seen throughout Rajasthan. Desertification and overpopulation have led to a reduction in the quality topfeed (trees, tall shrubs) that camels prefer, forcing them to compete with sheep, goats, and cows for low-level grazing. This means that H. contortus, usually only found in sheep here, has moved to camels as the animals are exposed to feces-covered groundfeed.

History of camel: domestication

Every person who has argued over the relative merits of dogs versus cats as house pets has engaged the fundamental question of domestication: how do you get an animal to acknowledge your superiority? For some species, like sheep and goats, a herd mentality makes domestication the simple process of acclimatization. For others, like dogs, a hierarchical social structure means that establishing control is more of a play for dominance. And for some, like cats, the process is never fully complete, instead constituting a regular exchange of services.

Camels, despite their tendency to herd, are quite socially shrewd, so domestication involves the establishment of dominance and control. The first domesticators were probably fishermen on the coast of Yemen and Oman, who turned to the camel for milk around 2000BCE. They had no need to ride the animals, their semi-sedentary communities simply serving as a base for fishing expeditions, nor did they require the meat. Corralling a few females would have been easy-- getting one to let you touch its udder would have been the tough part.

As described earlier, the practice of keeping camels for milk is today only prevalent in Somalia and East Africa. The Arabian fishermen slowly turned their seafaring chops to trade, spreading the camel across the Red Sea. There, in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth, the camel could provide milk from land that was previously useless. The custom stuck, and even today Somalia is the home to the most camels of any country.

Me and those dreaming eyes of mine

For the two weeks leading up to Pushkar I practiced my Hindi and developed a survey on camel ownership. I hoped to gather quantitative data to support the idea that macroeconomic, environmental, and land ownership changes in Rajasthan were affecting just who was showing up at the Mela and what prices they were asking. By reanalyzing data from similar studies conducted in Pakistan and Sudan, I was able to find about twenty variables on herd condition and owner economics that would confirm the trend away from nomadism that I could describe qualitatively. I carefully designed a survey methodology, practicing with the raikas at the NRCC enough times to feel comfortable with the camel lingo and veterinary inspection. Fulfilling a childhood dream I even had a custom lab coat made so I would stand out from the thousands of western tourists.

And although cries of 'Doctor Sahib' bidding me to attend to this or that camel ailment were certainly a welcome alternative to sales pitches and begging, my introduction as a 'research doctor' invariably rebuilt the cultural wall between me and the camel owners that had been briefly pierced by our mutual concern for the animals. In their eyes, my clipboard and tape measure could mean nothing but rules, taxes, and bribes, no matter my pleading or the number of shared biris. It only took me a few hours to realize my research goals were utterly unattainable.

Which is not to say the scientific end of the visit was a total loss. I got to sit around and drink chai with a lot of camel owners who loved the lab coat so long as I wasn't writing down everything they said. Hanging around the veterinary hospital I saw every sort of camel injury, including a compound fracture from a racing accident (say farewell to Rs.30,000 of prime camel). And, most repulsively, I got to try my hand--literally-- at a pregnancy diagnosis on a purebred Mewari mare (horse).

Here, feeling like a badass having just correctly estimated age by dental erosion:

Pushkar Unt Mela

After an overnight train back from Delhi I hopped on my Bajaj for the 300km drive to Pushkar, a small town nestled in the Aravalli hills whose natural lakes and bathing ghats make it an important Hindu pilgrimage destination. To westerners, though, it is most famous as the site of the yearly Camel Fair/Unt Mela, where thousands of animals are bought, sold, and displayed and herders get a rare chance to kick back a bit. The popularity of the Mela and the town's relaxed atmosphere have also made it a prime stop on the 'alternative' tourist circuit.

The Mela is a result of the particular ecology, anthropology, and economics of camel herding in Rajasthan. Camel herding castes (such as the aforementioned raikas) live in family groups that own 40-100 camels, all but two or three of which are females and young. Spending the summer in the hills to avoid the desert heat, the herders return to the Thar for the lush vegetation and cool temperatures of the winter breeding season. Before heading off, though, they all meet up and swap top studs to prevent inbreeding. Inferior males are castrated and sold to farmers for work.

This year's mela was one of the most profitable ever, a result most likely caused by high oil prices and the resulting ineconomy of tractor use. The number of camel herders, however, was at an all-time low (I only met one full-size herd). This year's selling was mostly done by middlemen, dealers who rounded up marginal animals from their district and came to make a profit. For the NRCC, hoping to find some really top animals (and willing to pay their hefty price), the fair was a disappointment.

History of camel: dominance and collapse

If the camel's close relationship to man was foreshadowed by the two species' concurrent, countercurrent, then the camel's fate during and after the last Ice Age was a sure signal of things to come.

By the middle Pleistocene, Camellus included at least seven different species spread across southern Europe, North and East Africa, the Middle East, and most of Asia. Although each differed in morphology and environment, osteological and ecological clues tell us that, by and large, they lived much as camels do today. Their adaptations to aridity gave them access to untapped resources and protected them from most predators. But periodic ice ages drove declines in the marginal areas the camels enjoyed most, pushing them into closer contact and competition with other herd animals. Humans, always ready to eat anything big and easily hunted, didn't help.

By the beginning of the Holocene (12,000ya) most camel species were extinct, and the others had been driven into small refuges. In southern Arabia, the dromedary survived only in the hilly fringes of the Rub al Khali, the Empty Quarter. The Bactrian, like Lama, took refuge in the mountains of Central Asia. And some scholars hold that a third species remained in the Atlas mountains of Morocco and Algeria until the introduction of the domestic camel. In any case, the precipitous climate and human-fueled decline of Camelllus is an apt analogy for the problems the animals face today.

Source: Wilson RT. 1984. The Camel. Essex: Longman Group.

Stud selection

The primary responsibility of the Genetics Unit is the direction of selective breeding. Due to a variety of bureaucratic, biological, and statistical barriers this effort is moderately futile, but every September and October the numbers are crunched and the master breeding plan is put out.

With no real economic value for camels other than their capacity for work, breeding is conducted with the aim of increasing draught ability, while carefully maintaining the genetic diversity and population structure of the herd. So we take three biometric measurements long ago found to correlate with strength and billet the males accordingly (we do not select for females; due to their long intergestational period it is highly uneconomical not to mate them).

There are lots of problems with this approach. First, it constitutes indirect selection: we are choosing males based on biometric traits rather than actual work ability. Second, the study that pushed those traits to the forefront utilized primitive statistics that confuse what's really going on (I'm working on new numbers). Finally, while the assumption that 'big dads have big sons' is common sense, the heritability of strength is unknown so we have no clue how effective our efforts may be.

Winter approaches, and that means it's business time. Whether or not our selections are having an effect, we'll get some good-looking calves in a year.

The most valuable camels this side of the Gulf:

History of camel: evolution and speciation

The mammals emerged during the Triassic, around 225 million years ago. For 160 million years they were the dung beetles of the reptile world, relying on their small size to stay out of the way of T. Rex. But things changed when earth's collision with a massive asteroid 65 million years ago made life tough for large cold-blooded animals. Diversity of form and function that had been lurking under the saurischian-dominated surface was let loose, and within fifteen million years after the advent of the Age of Mammals the world was populated by a whole new array of exotic and quixotic animals.

On the plains of North America, the rabbit-sized ancestors (the Poëbrotheriinae) of the camel family gradually increased in size in the Eocene, grazing on grasses and forming into herds for protection. By the Middle Oligocene (around 30 million years ago) the family had diversified and spread across the New World and Asia, most of its members of a size and shape similar to modern camels.

The Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene (20m-12tya), the great age of apes, was a time of consolidation and expansion for the camel. Most genii died out in the face of new environmental conditions, but two-- Lama and Camellus-- specialized and thrived. The former moved into the isolated mountains of South America, where it today survives as the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna. Camellus, on the other hand, was a little more adventurous. Crossing the Bering sea land bridge in the early Pleistocene, it emerged onto the arid steppes of Asia and thrived. As Camellus conquered the Old World, it surely must have encountered the other ascendant genus spreading across the world's plains: Homo.

Source: Wilson RT. 1984. The Camel. Essex: Longman Group.

Camel nutrition

I have discovered the best way to pass time at the NRCC when I'm not helping in the lab, working on some stats, studying in the library, or searching Google for naked pictures of Sarah Palin. I stick my head out the door, listen for a moment, and then try to find the camel making the most absurd noises.

Yesterday the nastiest grunting I'd ever heard came wafting over from the Nutrition experiment corral and I enthusiastically made my way over to see just what tricks the Grand Inquisitor had devised for this poor camel. My stomach turned (in sympathy, too) when I realized that the technical team was in the process of collecting ruminal fluid.

In order to extract the stinky yellow juice from an organ located at the bottom of a 80 centimeter esophagus, a garden hose was connected to an imposing air pump coughing out plumes of black smoke. The camel was so doped up on xylazine it couldn't hold its neck up, but it still had the sense to try to bite the hand that choked it. Finally, a few centiliters of fluid were extracted and the camel left to enjoy the rest of its trip.

I wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh at the pitiful position the animal adopted at the end of the procedure.

Milk production and the follicular wave

The peculiar reproductive cycle of the camel evolved so that mating and parturition both take place during the cool season, which here occurs between October and February. This timing ensures an abundance of feed for hungry males spending their time fighting for mates and for new mothers struggling to feed their young. Follicle growth in non-pregnant females is suppressed during the summer, most likely by environmental conditions, but continues nonetheless. Around now follicles begin growing and males begin to rut, or engage in characteristic breeding behavior. Copulation induces ovulation, and gestation lasts thirteen months.

This system has a profound implication for camel-herding societies. Lactation only occurs in females with young, not only reducing the number of females producing milk but also reducing the amount of milk available for human consumption. With most camels weaned at one year, the slow and inefficient reproductive cycle is yet another reason why camels are herded in large numbers.

Flirting with camels

I often give tours of the NRCC to visitors staying at the guesthouse, which gives me a chance to practice my camelology spiel as well as remember what it's like to talk to native English speakers. The other day I stumbled on a particularly apt analogy for how to interact with camels.

Camels are smart and curious, but they are also arrogant and sly. Getting one to like you is a lot like picking up a girl at a bar. It starts with eye contact, the briefest acknowledgement of mutual interest. But you can't stare- that's creepy. Indeed, not looking can be even more effective than looking. Before you even think of getting closer, you've got to completely confident of your success. Subtle clues of body language indicate whether approach is possible.

But, just like last call, in the end one of you has got to get up and walk over to the other, and luckily for tourists camels aren't nearly as picky as women.

Conservation

In the coming decades we will undoubtedly witness one of the greatest extinction events in the history of the earth, as humanity's consumptive chickens come home to roost. It is easy to convey the environmental, economic, and moral reasoning behind trying as hard as we can to preserve as much of our world's biodiversity as we can, but how do we go about saving an animal entirely domesticated?

This is not a research question of the NRCC per se, but it is a concern that pervades the Centre. So long as there are remote desert farming communities the camel will remain necessary, but how long will such an existence remain feasible in the face of climate change, economic growth, and urbanization? The camel is extinct in the wild, except for a few thousand feral in Australia. Other than milk and meat production (neither of which is likely to catch on), token military use, and racing in the Gulf, it lacks a major raison d'etre outside of traditional herding. Is it our responsibility to save it?

One hump or two?

The camel I study is the dromedary, one-humped, or Arabian variety. Its sister species, the Bactrian, two-humped, or Asian camel, is suited more to the chill of the mountainous Central Asia plateau than the arid reaches that have caught my attention. The two are easily hybridized, though children of hybrids are sterile.

The Bactrian has not been the focus of as extensive research as the dromedary, primarily because the regions in which it is found are also home to more efficient pack and draught animals such as the horse, ox, and yak. The dromedary, on the other hand, holds a decisive monopoly on desert environments.

More wrangling

Here is a short video of a failed attempt to arrest an adult male for measurement.

Breeds of Camel: Jaisalmeri

This camel breed emerged around the most isolated of Rajasthan's fort towns, the golden city of Jaisalmer. As in Bikaner, the wealth of the state depended on the taxation of trade. Here, however, the penchant for draught was not so strong, and camels were instead selected for utility as pack animals.

The Jaisalmeri camel is tall and thin, without the large withers and muscles of the Bikaneri. Its coat is very sparse and lightly colored, with no extra facial or body hair. This physique makes it well-suited for racing as well as pack, and the type consistently wins at the famous camel fairs in Pushkar, Jaisalmer, and Bikaner.

Here, a typically Jaisalmeri face:

Breeds of Camel: Bikaneri

There are four breeds of camel in India, distinguished as much through historical and geographic separation as by biological difference: Bikaneri, Jaisalmeri, Merwari, and Kacchi. Here, I will describe the Bikaneri.

India is one of the few parts of the world where camels are used as draught animals, and Bikaner, as an isolated city dependent on trade, prefers camels well suited for hitching to a cart. The breed is very large and heavy, with thick appendages and hefty withers. It is much darker than most camel breeds, with profuse facial and neck hair. This gives the animal a rather hilarious appearance. A defining trait of the breed is the distinctive notch or 'shtop' in the snout.

Here, pictures showing the dark coloration, hairy face, and 'shtop' of the Bikaneri camel (contrasted with a Jaisalmeri in the second photo):

History of camel: use for draught

In his fascinating book The Camel and the Wheel (1975), Richard Bulliet of Columbia-Ahmadinejad fame musters an impressive body of camel-knowledge to argue that the efficiency of the camel as a pack animal is largely what drove the disappearance of the wheel from Middle Eastern cultures since Roman times. By coordinating economic, political, social, and, interestingly, camel saddling aspects of Middle Eastern societies, he convincingly shows that the invention of the North Arabian saddle allowed nomadic camel-herders to begin to dominate overland trade routes. This dominance in turn triggered the abandonment of the less-efficient cart. The expansion of Islam reintroduced or solidified the role of the camel across North Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia, and these societies, by and large, discarded the wheel in favor of the more efficient pack camel.

In India, however, cultural familiarity with the wheel was stronger, and even in the most arid, camel-friendly reaches of the Thar desert the cart survived, in all of its oxen-, donkey-, and camel-powered varieties. The camel cart is commonplace on the streets of Bikaner, still used alongside tractors and trucks. The most important selection criteria in the NRCC's complicated method for evaluating the suitability and value of male camels are those related to draught ability. Pack camels, once the lifeline of this desert city, are now only used to transport that most agreeable and easily-loaded commodity: tourists.

Here, a typical camel cart after transporting feed to the main corral. Note the saddle, an Indian pakkra. I took the photo during a sandstorm:

Reproductive cycles

It is most fitting that our Class, Mammalia, is named for an aspect of the female reproductive tract. Especially with regards to the placental mammals (the Theria, which excludes platypuses, echidnas, and kangaroos), the challenges of mating have had a profound impact on our structure, function, and behavior.

Most mammals exhibit an estrous cycle. In this system, ovulation is accompanied by suite of physical and behavioral changes that indicate to males that the female is 'in heat,' or capable of conception. Business proceeds.

Humans are interesting because we have developed the menstrual cycle or 'permanent estrous.' Ovulation is outwardly concealed and conception is possible at any point in the cycle. The only external change is menstruation, the expulsion of an unfertilized ovum. Theoretically, the menstrual cycle evolved along with strong pair-bonding, as males who could not be sure when a female was in heat would be forced to monopolize one female for long periods of time to ensure his paternity.

Camels are also special, as they exhibit induced ovulation or the 'follicular wave.' Follicles are constantly growing and maturing, but ovulation is triggered only by the dirty deed itself. This unique cycle is the greatest obstacle to assisted fertility treatments in camels, for although the males are happy to contribute whenever the opportunity arises, females are quite picky about when they let their eggs out. The evolutionary implications of such as system will be covered in another post.

Here, Dr. Vyas assesses follicle development: