248 Rangelands 4(6), December 1982 eameI4 on Ute Iestea,v Raiqe James A. Young Rangemanagers are being called upon to play an increas- and the typical, flat-spreading camelidfoot came into being. ingly important role in understandingthe ecology and soci- Toward the end of the Tertiary, camelids emigrated via the ology of nomadic and subsistence agriculture in the broad Bering land mass to the Old World. Emigrations continued belt of semiarid to arid lands stretching across North Africa sporadically through the Pliocene,where the genus Came- and extending into southwestern Asia from Mauritania to /us, to which our present day camels belong, left North Somalia and northward to Afghanistan and the trans Altai- America. Camelops, a camelid well over 6.5 feet (2 meters) Gobi Deserts.Some 14 million camels providethe focal point high at the shoulder, existed in westernNorth America until of desert grazing systemsin this desert area. Similarly, in the well into the Pleistocene. Well-preservedremains of Camel- highlands of South America the members of the camel ops besternus, Yesterday's Camel, have been found in the related genus Lama (the wild vicuna and guanaco and the arid Southwest,which led workers to believecamels existed domesticated llama and alpaca) are of major concern in in North America until recent times. However, evidence range management.To the majority of western range man- points to a late glacial extinction some10,800 to 12,600 years agers camels are the least familiar to most western range ago. the domesticated herbivores. scientists of all large Preferred the 19th inwestern North America,camels Forage During century Camels can exist on poorer and more or were used as pack animals in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, quality thorny and British Columbia with spiny browse than cattle, horses, sheep, or even goats. A California, Nevada, breeding pop- used Russian for ulations in California and otherareas. We came commonly procedure ranking forage perhaps very has winter for camels as the bottom close to having a population of feral camels on the western always forage category. This is how Halogeton glomeratus is ranked.Camels can use range. What characteristics makecamels such uniquerange animals? Evolution of Camels The only living species of camelsare the dromedary[one- humped, or Arabian camel (Came/usdromedarius)] and the Bactrian [two-humped camel (Came/usbactrianus)]. In gen- eral, the Bactrian camel is found in mountainous, rocky terrain fromTurkmenistan (USSR) eastwardthrough Siberia east of Lake Baikal into Mongolia and northern Chrna. The northern limit of the cold resistant Bactrian camel is about 50° north latitude. In the Tien Shan and Pamir regions of central Asia, the Bactrians exist ataltitudes ashigh as 13,000 feet (4,000meters). In the remotedeserts of central Asia feral or truly wild populations of the Bactrian camel may still exist. Thedromedary is found in almost all the arid and semiarid regions of the Old World with the main population in North Africa. The distribution ofdromedary camelsnearly reaches the equator in northern Kenya. In Asiathedromedary occurs throughout the Arabian Peninsula and extends north and northeastward to Turkey, southwestern Russian, Pakistan, northwestern India and into Sinkiang (China). Because of past exportation of dromedaries,they are found in Australia and the Canary Islands. The wild populations of dromedary camels were extinct by historic times. Like the horse, the ancestors of the camels evolved in North America. The first camels can be traced through the Tertiary Period to primitive upper Eocene ancestors not larger than rabbits. Body size increasedalong the main evo- line of the camelids the Miocene and PIio- lutionary during Came! feeding on the spiny Astragalus spinous. Photography cene epochs. The teeth and skull became more specialized from the Ecology and Utilization Desert Shrub Rangeland in Iraq. (Reproducedwith permission of W. Junk, Publishers). Author is range scientist. u.s. Dept. of Agriculture,Agricultural Research Service, 920 Valley Road, Reno, Nevada89512. Rangelands 4(6), December 1982 249 'Camel train in Nevada"drawn by Frenzeny(Photograph provided by Nevada Historical Society). their hairy prehensilelips, the upper two halves ofwhich are less evaporationis requiredat high temperatures.Camel hair separated and move independently, to handle thorns or has the dual and contradictory function of simultaneously spines that would turn goats back. The upper palatein cam- protecting against high temperatureswhile allowing the dis- els is less highly evolved than in otherruminates because the sipation of body heat to thesurrounding air. The net result of lateral incisors are still retained. The camel may draw off all these adaptations is that duringthe 6 or 7 cool months of leaves from a branch or clip off an entire twig. By stretching the Sahara Desert, camels usually do not drink, but rather its neck straight up, a camel can browseto aheight of 11 feet rely on obtaining water from food plants which average50% (3.5 meters). Camels typicallygraze in open herds with the moisture during the cool season. individual animals in nearly continual movement,often cov- ering 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) per hour. During these strol- Camels in the American West ling periods of grazing, camelsmay bequite selectivein their The proposal that camels be tried asa substitute for horse, food habits, sampling everything from grasses to trees if mules, and ox teams in transportation of supplies for the available.Grasses such as Aristida pungens, A. mutabilis, or army seems to have originated with Major George Gross- Panicum turgidum are highly preferred by dromedary cam- man, who had beenquartermasterfor ZacheryTaylor'scom- els in North Africa. mandduring the Seminole War. In 1851, an effortwas made Water Requirements to appropriate $30,000to purchase 50 camels and hire 10 The water requirementsof camels suffer from manypopu- Arab camel drivers. It failed, but finally in March of 1855, lar misconceptions. The camel has a very large drinking when Jeff Davis was secretary of war, the appropriation for capacity, but does not store waterfor future needs, butrather camels passed at Davis's personal request. replenishes water already lost through evaporation, urine, The camels purchased by the war department were and feces. Because of the camel's almost unique ability to dromedaries from North Africa and the Middle East. The survive for days withoutdrinking water, even in the hottest army assembled a herd of 70 camels at Camp Val Verde, 80 deserts, early workers assumedthat water was stored for use miles (130km) southwestof San Antonio, Texas. Lt. Edward in the animals's body. There is no anatomical evidencethat R. Beale drove a camel train from Texasthrough what is now camelscan store water despitethe fact that a camel can drink New Mexico and Arizona by way ofthe MojaveDesert. Lieut- as much as 26 gallons (100 liters) after going several days enant Beale stayed in California and developed extensive without water. The huge amounts of water consumed ranching properties at Tejon, near modern Bakersfield. replace losses from dehydration that may approach 25°h of Secretary of War John BuchananFloyd placed20 camels in the camel's body weight. With an adequatediet, tolerance of the handsof Beale for use in surveyingexpeditions. By 1861, dehydration is great. this brooding herd had increased to 28 animals. Camels have several adaptations that reduce water At the timeof the Civil War,there were several war depart- requirements including a fluctuating body temperature so ment camel pack trains scatteredamong the variousfrontier 250 Rangelands 4(6), December 1982 posts in the southwest.During thewar the major camel camp A British Columbian gold miner known as Grizzly Morris in Texas was under control of the Confederatearmy and the had the distinction of bagging the most fantastic "grizzly camels were disposed of in Mexico. At many of the other bear" on record. One day when peering through the brush western posts, thecamels were turned loose during thewar. nearBeaver Lake hesaw the largestgrizzly he had everseen In 1864, Army QuartermasterSamuel McLauglin decided in his life. Taking careful aim he brought it down with one the camels were surplus and tried to round up the free shot only to discover that his "bear" was a two-humped remaining camels at Fort Yuma and Tejon. Most of these camel! animalswere taken to the military post at Benecia, Calif., and In Nevada the camels were used as previously mentioned auctioned February 26, 1884. By this time, Beale's herd at to pack salt (primarily NaCI) from playas in the bottom of Tejon had increased to 34 head. pluvial lake basins to thesilver mills where the salt was used During the early 1860's, Otte Esche, a wealthy San Fran- to treat refractory ores. For centuries camels had beenused cisco merchant, decided that the answerto transportation to transport salt from North Africa tothe blackempires below problems in the "Great Sandy Desert" between the Sierra the Sahara,where salt couldbe traded for an equal weight in NevadaMountains and Salt Lake City was the development gold. of camel trains. Esche wentto the AmurRiver areabetween The camel trains were not successful in Nevadafor two Mongolia and Siberiaand purchasedBactrian camels for use reasons. First, they did not have proper handlers. In 1865, in what is now Nevada. He had a difficult time keeping the Professor Brewer, from Yale University, described camel two-humped camels alive on the long voyage across the trains he saw near Virginia City, Nev. "Their backs had not Pacific. Most ofthe camels that Esche purchased were sold been cared for and they had been used in packing heavy to Julius Bandman who formed a company to transport salt loads of salt from the deserts. Salt, water, and alkali had from desert playas to the silver mills of the Comstock Lode. accumulated in the long hair of their humps, their pack These camels crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains by the saddles had galled them and great, loathsomesores nearly way of the Mariposa grovesof big trees or inland redwoods covered the parts touched by the saddle." The second prob- (Sequoiadendron gigariteum) groves.