WEBVTT - Do the humps on camels hold water?

0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.600
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff Works dot com

0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:08.440
<v Speaker 1>where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,

0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:13.680
<v Speaker 1>do the humps on camels hold water? The short answer

0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.200
<v Speaker 1>is no. A camel's hump is actually a giant mound

0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.520
<v Speaker 1>of fat. In a healthy, well fed camel, the hump

0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.880
<v Speaker 1>can weigh as much as eighty pounds. Human beings and

0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.440
<v Speaker 1>most animals store their fat mixed in with muscle tissue

0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.840
<v Speaker 1>or in a layer right beneath the skin. Camels are

0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.960
<v Speaker 1>the only animals with a hump. The hump allows a

0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.320
<v Speaker 1>camel to survive an extremely long time, up to two

0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.440
<v Speaker 1>weeks without food if it needs to. Because camels typically

0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.760
<v Speaker 1>live in the desert, where food can be scarce for

0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.440
<v Speaker 1>long stretches, this is important. But the hump has nothing

0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.200
<v Speaker 1>to do with water. So how does a camel survive

0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.560
<v Speaker 1>without water in the desert. A camel needs about five

0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.520
<v Speaker 1>gallons of water a day. In the summer, however, a

0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.920
<v Speaker 1>camel can lose up to gallons of water from its

0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.160
<v Speaker 1>body tissues without ill effects. In other words, normal body

0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:08.120
<v Speaker 1>tissue is storing the water a camel needs. Camels are

0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.240
<v Speaker 1>also good at conserving water. One thing that a camel

0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.319
<v Speaker 1>can do to conserve water is to handle large body

0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.800
<v Speaker 1>temperature swing. A camel might start the day with its

0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.960
<v Speaker 1>body temperature at ninety four degrees fahrenheit and allow its

0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.679
<v Speaker 1>temperature to rise as high as a hundred of five

0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.160
<v Speaker 1>degrees fahrenheit only at the upper end of this range.

0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.480
<v Speaker 1>Doesn't need to sweat to prevent overheating. When you compare

0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.319
<v Speaker 1>this temperature range to the range that a human body

0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.920
<v Speaker 1>can handle, where only a two degree rise indicates illness,

0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.479
<v Speaker 1>you can see the advantage. Do you have any ideas

0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.680
<v Speaker 1>or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me

0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.640
<v Speaker 1>an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.320
<v Speaker 1>For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.200
<v Speaker 1>to how stuff works dot com.