Body temperature of the camel and its relation to water economy

Measured body temperature continuously through the day in camels in the Sahara, comparing watered animals with dehydrated ones, and calculated the water saved by the observed temperature swing.

Studied in

Camelus dromedarius

Sample size

camels measured in the Sahara, watered and dehydrated

A dehydrated camel allows its body temperature to swing by around six degrees across the day — cooling overnight and rising through the morning without sweating — and re-radiates the stored heat at night. A watered camel holds a much steadier temperature. The swing saves several litres of water a day.

• A small number of animals under field conditions in the 1950s.
• The magnitude of the swing varies with the degree of dehydration and with ambient conditions.

• The same camels, with water and without

  Camels are famously heat-tolerant. Is the tolerance a fixed property of the animal, or something it deploys when it needs to?

• Desert survival

  Desert animals are not enduring the desert. They are keeping accounts — cutting losses on every route at once, and mostly arranging not to be out in the conditions at all.

• Desert survival

  A camel’s hump is fat, not water. Its real water-saving trick is to let its own body temperature swing by about six degrees through the day rather than sweating to hold it steady.