Animal Diaries Archive

Camel Myths (Part 1)

30 March 2007

On our daily camel walks throughout the Zoo we get asked many questions about these awesome girls. One of the most common questions asked, would have to be whether a camel can spit? The answer to this is yes a camel can spit, but it is only used in self-defence. They won’t generally spit unless they are extremely agitated or frightened. If they where to spit it is most likely a lot more unpleasant than what your actually thinking. When they do spit it's not that bit of white froth you see hanging from their lips. That’s simply a bit of saliva from chewing their cud.

What a camel does if it spits is actually bring up it's entire stomach contents! I guess you could say it’s a lot more like projectile vomit. It can come up in a few different forms. One of them is known as the cannon ball. This comes up in a huge solid mass of food. They are extremely accurate with their aim and have been known to knock a grown man to his back using this.

The other form is what we refer to as a soaker hose spray. This is where they will cover you from head to toe in a nice big spray of their stomach contents.

Fortunately we are lucky enough to be able to say our girls have never ever spat! And fingers crossed for our sake that they never will. I am pretty certain it’s safe to say they won’t ever spit at us, as these girls lead a life of leisure. Therefore, they don’t have a reason to spit. The moral of the story is, make sure you are always super nice to camels!!
Next time you’re visiting in the zoo, be sure to come and meet our gorgeous girl Teela. There is also a great opportunity to get up close and personal with Teela our super sweet Dromedary Camel. Teela loves to go for a stroll to the zoo entrance and meet and greet people as they enter.

Until next time, take care.

Exotics Michéle

To be continued...