How do camels eat cactus

How do camels eat cactus? This question make us wonder. The first impression we get from the cactus plant is that no animal can eat it unless it has an iron mouth. Its thorns are not only numerous, long, and hard, but also have many small thorns that are difficult to remove when they get stuck in the flesh, and are very painful.

When I was a kid, I accidentally pricked my tongue with tiny thorns while eating cactus . The feeling was indescribable. This physical defense mechanism evolved by the cactus is to prevent animals from eating it, and it seems to be very successful.

But the adaptive evolution of herbivores seems to be more advanced. There is a creature whose flexible big mouth can chew cactus raw without spitting out the thorns.

It is the camel, known as the “ship of the desert”. They are docile in nature and were domesticate by humans more than 3,000 years ago. They have become the only means of transportation for people in arid desert areas.

Its hump, cloven hooves, long eyelashes, membranes in its eyes, and mouth that can chew cactus are all features design for survival in the desert. Moreover, its endurance and speed are no less than those of horses. It can walk dozens of kilometers in the desert every day while dragging 200 kilograms of loads.

In particular, the hump evolve from the camel stores a large amount of fat. Which can be urgently call upon to break down into water and energy. This is the biggest reason why camels can survive in the desert.

Secondly, they have conquered all the food found in the desert, including grass, branches, shrubs, herbs, leaves, and of course cacti that are very water-rich and nutritious.

Next, let’s talk about why camels can eat cactus. This has something to do with their mouths and digestive systems.

Alien-like mouth

The camel’s mouth is very clever, especially the lips, which can gently pick up food, rotate food, adjust direction, etc., which provides them with great flexibility when eating cactus.

Secondly, the inside of their mouths is like that of alien creatures, covered with very long papillae . They are made of keratin, which is as hard as our nails. The camel’s palate is also very hard, so it can chew cactus.

Driven by the mouth muscles, these papillae act like fingers and rotate all the cactus thorns into a vertical direction instead of a horizontal direction. So that the camel will not get stuck or scratch the esophagus when swallowing.

But even with such a hard mouth, the camel will still feel pain when eating cactus. However, the camel seems to have gotten use to it and will endure the pain in order to eat the cactus.

However, if a camel eats too much cactus, its mouth will be prick, especially the face around the mouth. Therefore, if someone feeds the camel, the owner will generally remove the thorns for the camel in advance and pull out the thorns on its mouth.

Otherwise, the thorns will remain for a long time and cause constant pain.

All camels have papillae in their mouths, and the number and health of the papillae are directly related to the camel’s physical condition. If the papillae become dull or ulcerated, it means that there is something wrong with the camel’s body.

Digestion

Camels, like most herbivores, are ruminants , which is why they can eat cacti. Otherwise, even if their mouths are fine, if they cannot digest the cactus thorns, they will eventually cut their intestines. Like cows, camels will first swallow the cactus and its thorns that have not been completely chew into their fermentation stomachs. This stomach is like a food fermentation tank, where there are a large number of bacteria that feed on plant fiber, which will decompose and ferment the food.

When the cactus and thorns become softer, the food will be regurgitate. The camel will slowly chew and thoroughly crush the food, and then swallow the food again into another stomach for digestion and absorption.

At this time, the thorns of the cactus no longer caused any harm to the camel’s body.

Plants are not born to provide food for animals. They do not want their stems and leaves to be eat by animals and cause their death. So plants will fight against animals and evolve to be very unpalatable, difficult to swallow, and difficult to digest. This can be consider a form of physical defense.

In order to survive, animals will try their best to eat more plants and evolve some special structures to eat and digest plants.

For example, the camel’s mouth can defend against damage from sharp thorns, the giraffe’s dexterous tongue can roll up tender leaves amidst a bush of thorns, and there is also the stomach of a herbivore. If one is not enough, evolve four.

Some plants are even more outrageous. In order to avoid being eat, they actually use chemical attacks. Such as releasing unpleasant odors and making their taste bitter or spicy. This is nothing.

Some plants have evolved deadly toxins that can kill animals if eaten. You see, the competition has reached a life-and-death level.

When faced with plant toxins, most animals are helpless and can only distinguish which plants are edible and which are not, and summarize them to tell future generations. Therefore, animals in the wild now will not easily eat plants they are not familiar with.

Camels live in the desert, and cactus is the most common plant in the desert and it contains a lot of water. Even if the cactus is fully arm, camels have slowly adapt to the cactus during evolution.

There are not only camels, but also many other animals that eat cacti in the desert. This is enough to show that when it comes to food, thorns or not are not a big deal.