The dromedary, the Bactrian and its wild cousin, the llama and alpaca, the vicuña, and the caravan trade.
The one-humped camel was domesticated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula about 3,000 years ago from a wild dromedary that is now extinct. It can lose a quarter of its body water and recover in minutes at a well, which opened the desert to trade.
What made the camel worth more than a horse in the desert?
The two-humped Bactrian camel was domesticated in Central Asia, probably more than 4,000 years ago; the date is still debated. Shaggy in winter and shedding in spring, it carried silk, tea and wool across the steppes and deserts between China and Persia.
Why did the Silk Road need a camel that could survive both heat and frost?
A few hundred wild two-humped camels still live in the Gobi of Mongolia and China. DNA shows they are a separate species (Camelus ferus), not runaway domestic camels, and some can drink salty water. They are listed as critically endangered.
Why protect a wild relative of an animal we already have?
South America's camel family came from two wild species. DNA shows the llama descends mostly from the guanaco and the alpaca from the vicuña. Llamas carried loads for the Inca road system; alpacas were bred for soft fleece in many natural colors.
How did the Inca build an empire with no horses or wheels?
The wild vicuña grows one of the finest animal fibers in the world. Hunted almost to extinction by the 1960s, it recovered under protection. Andean communities now round up wild herds in the chaccu, an Inca-style drive, shear them and set them free.
Can harvesting a wild animal's fiber protect it?
Camel caravans carried frankincense from southern Arabia, salt and gold across the Sahara, and silk and spices along the routes between China and the Mediterranean. Caravan towns such as Petra, Palmyra and Timbuktu grew rich on the traffic, and the camel saddle shaped what could be carried.
Why did caravan cities rise and fall with their routes?
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