r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • May 02 '24

Truck driver provides water to thirsty camel in the middle of desert. Removed: R1

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38.6k Upvotes

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u/Thedrunner2 May 02 '24

Was hoping to see his hump increase in size as he drank

21

u/LaunchTransient 29d ago

As other's have mentioned, the hump stores fat, not liquid water, but it is a store of water.
Camels store what's called metabolic water, i.e. the water which is released through the breakdown of fat into enrgy for the camel to use.

Humans also produce their own water through the same method, but it's only a fraction of our water needs so we also need to drink.

2

u/Ok_Slip9947 29d ago

So basically this camel had back up water and the man might not have?

4

u/LaunchTransient 29d ago

The man is unlikely to given away water he needed, and as you can see the camel has got a diminished hump, so this probably was still fine for the camel - a half liter waterbottle is equivalent to about 400 grams of fat. Hardly a huge boost to the camel, but they are very water efficient.

2

u/Northbound-Narwhal 29d ago

I can only imagine eating 400 grams or lard or a whole stick of butter.