A camel is either of the two species of large even-toed
ungulate in the genus Camelus, the Dromedary (Single hump)
and the Bactrian Camel (Double hump). Both are native
to the dry and desert areas of Asia and northern Africa.
The name camel comes via the Greek kamelos from the Hebrew
gamal, "camel". The term camel is also used
more broadly, to describe any of the six camel-like creatures
in the family Camelidae: the two true camels, and the
four South American camelids: Llama, Alpaca, Guanaco and
Vicuna. For an overview of the camel family, see camelid.
For more information on the two true camels, see Dromedary
and Bactrian Camel.Although there are almost 13 million
Dromedaries alive today, the species is extinct in the
wild: all but a handful are domesticated animals (mostly
in Sudan, Somalia, India and nearby countries).
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