The majority of people in this country use cars for general transport and we also have other vehicles for different tasks, say four-by-fours for off-road use and tractors for heavy farming etc. In history humans have utilised various animals for these tasks. Horses have been used for ploughing, for war and for general transport. Elephants have been used for similar tasks. The camel on the other hand can be viewed as the off-road desert edition in the animal series of transport. It is still the transport of choice in some countries. Unlike a horse, the camel has special features that make it most suitable for long desert journeys. Here is a summery of a few of these features:

Body temperature regulation system
Human bodies keep a stable temperature of 37.5 °C, where the camel body temperature varies from 35 to 40 °C. 'Why is this?' you may ask. Well, the desert is a harsh environment and temperatures are very hot during the day and very cold at night. At night the camel's body temperature drops so it does not feel too cold. In the day it rises so the camel does not feel too hot. This system ensures minimum sweat, thus minimises the loss of valuable water.

Special urinary system
The camel has a unique system where it stops urinating and all waste products from the blood get re-directed to the stomach, thus come out as droppings. This is another system that minimises the loss of valuable water.

Special Drinking Capacity
Can you drink 100 liters of water? The camel has no problems 'filling-up' with this volume when it can.

Wide feet
Maybe not an exciting feature, but walking in the sand would be much more tiring if the feet were more like the narrow horse type.

Large eye lashes and valves on nostrils
Great in desert storms! When needed, the nose 'clams' up to let only a slit of air in. What animal wants harsh sand up the nose? The lashes are perfect for protecting the eyes from grit.

Rubber-like lips
Have you every tried eating cacti? The camel would not be able to eat much without its special thick rubbery mouth, which just so happens to be very suitable for eating prickly things.


The camel can go without water for two weeks and can travel 100 miles a day. The fuel is food and water, which is cheep or often free. No wonder the camel is still used! The camel is also environmentally friendly and will give the owner many years of reliable service. In time it could also duplicate itself, given that you have two of a different gender. This could provide transport for a whole household with little extra cost.

Some may say that the camel evolved from a horse, but the camel is so different in design that it would require hundreds of modifications. The modifications would need to have happened pretty quickly for it to have a chance of survival in a desert. If a horse had to wait millions of years for each feature to have evolved, it would have died-out waiting.

Another objection to the horse-to-camel theory is; Why would a horse have to adapt to desert conditions when it could have just lived somewhere else? In nature the path of least resistance is often followed. For a horse to evolve many new unique useful features, is a lot of effort. It would have been easier for the horse to have either moved or become extinct. If the evolution theory is correct then why are random changes always really useful and optimally designed? If the changes are truly random, then why don't we see versions of horses with really un-useful features? (in the fossil record or otherwise?). Maybe evolution is attributed far too much foresight by some. How could evolution have known about cacti, temperature regulation and water conservation systems? Surely only a master designer would have such wisdom to equip a creature with everything in place from the start for its survival?

With the camel we see one more marvel of God's creation, which was designed for the purpose that it has; to transport humans and luggage about in hot desert conditions.

-LS