#camels

Camels can go many weeks without drinking anything at all. The notion that they cache water in their humps is pure myth—their humps are made of fat, and water is stored in their body tissues. While other mammals draw water from bloodstreams when faced with dehydration, leading to death by volume shock, camels tap the water in their tissues, keeping their blood volume stable. Though this reduces the camel’s bulk, they can lose up to a third of their body weight with no ill effects, which they can replace astonishingly quickly, as they are able to drink up to forty gallons in a single watering.” (pp.69-70) ↗

— Michael Benanav

#bloodstream #body-tissues #body-weight #camels #death

Both camels are dead and our provisions are done. ↗

— William John Wills

#camels #dead #done #our #provisions

On horseback you feel as if you're moving in time to classical music; a camel seems to progress to the beat of a drum played by a drunk. ↗

— Walter Moers

#funny #horses #funny

I, like balloon animal hacks everywhere, can only make one animal so far. It is a LEGO version of the Island of Dr. Moreau, wherein I have brick-engineered a pig-camel, a dog-camel, and a camel with wheels. These monstrosities are quickly torn apart, and I wonder if I have some unresolved camel issues. ↗

— Jonathan Bender

#lego #love

Men," she said rueful, "are the most absurd creatures on this green earth." "But there are camels," Gabriel pointed out. "Believe me," she answered. "I've taken camels into consideration. ↗

— Zoe Archer

#creatures #humour #men #men

Measles and TB evolved from diseases of our cattle, influenza from a disease of pigs, and smallpox possibly from a disease of camels. The Americas had very few native domesticated animal species from which humans could acquire such diseases. ↗

— Jared Diamond

#americas #animal #camels #cattle #could

I have absolutely no empathy for camels. I didn't care for being abused in the Middle East by those horrible, horrible, horrible creatures. They don't like people. It's not at all like the relationship between horses and humans. ↗

— Rachel Weisz

#being #between #camels #care #creatures

I have been agreeably disappointed in my idea of the camels. They are far from unpleasant to ride; in fact, it is much less fatiguing than riding on horseback, and even with the little practice I have yet had, I find it shakes me less. ↗

— William John Wills

#been #camels #disappointed #even #fact

I distrust camels, and anyone else who can go a week without a drink. ↗

— Joe E. Lewis

#anyone #camels #distrust #drink #else

The fact is that camels are far more intelligent than dolphins. They are so much brighter that they soon realised that the most prudent thing any intelligent animal can do, if it would prefer its descendants not to spend a lot of time on a slab with electrodes clamped to their brains or sticking mines on the bottom of ships or being patronized rigid by zoologists, is to make bloody certain humans don't find out about it. So they long ago plumped for a lifestyle that, in return for a certain amount of porterage and being prodded with sticks, allowed them adequate food and grooming and the chance to spit in a human's eye and get away with it. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#dolphins #hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy #humor #pratchett #pyramids