MIAMI – Zoo Miami on Monday announced the recent birth of a critically endangered Bactrian camel.
According to a news release from the zoo, the camel, which was born Saturday night, appears to be a girl and weighed just over 96 pounds at birth.
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Zoo Miami officials said the mother, Sunny, is 3 years old and arrived at Zoo Miami in November 2017 from the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa, where she was born.
Sunny was pregnant for about 14 months.
The father of the unnamed newborn, Bubba, 9, was born at the Minnesota Zoo and arrived at Zoo Miami in 2012.
This is the first offspring for both parents.
“Bactrian camels are critically endangered in the wild where it is believed that less than a thousand remain,” the news release stated. “They are found in isolated pockets of the Gobi desert in Mongolia and China and are distinguished from the Dromedary camel by having two humps as opposed to one. They can live up to 50 years and weigh over 1,500 pounds.”
Zoo Miami officials said that the camels’ humps are not filled with water, as many believe, but rather fat, which can help them go for long periods of time without any food.
“They rarely sweat and are extremely adept at conserving water, which enables them to get much of the water they need from the vegetation they eat,” the news release stated.
Zoo Miami officials said camels have the ability to drink up to 30 gallons of water at a time.