A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from
Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an
even-toed ungulate
The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing post ...
in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to anima ...
, they provide food (
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulati ...
and meat) and textiles (fiber and felt from
hair). Camels are
working animal
A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or fo ...
s especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving species of camel. The one-humped
dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped
Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The
Wild Bactrian camel is a separate species and is now
critically endangered.
The word ''camel'' is also used informally in a wider sense, where the more correct term is "camelid", to include all seven species of the family
Camelidae
Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicu� ...
: the true camels (the above three species), along with the "New World" camelids: the
llama
The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era.
Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is so ...
, the