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Well, that big ol' hump (or two in some cases) on the back of a camel has to be full of something, right? We always assumed it was water, considering camels spend the majority of their time in the desert walking from here to there. However, after some research we learned that there's fat in them thar lumps. HowStuffWorks offered up an explanation for that thing on a camel's back. It's not a water tank at all -- it's actually a giant mound of fat that can weigh up to 80 pounds. The hump has a reason for being there -- it allows the camel to survive for up to two weeks without food, an essential skill for the desert-dwelling animals. We next visited Arab.net,
"the resource for the Arab world in the Middle East and North Africa." They concurred with our earlier findings, and offered some color to what happens to the hump when the camel uses the hump for sustenance. If a camel needs to use the fat reserves in its hump, the mound become flabby and shrinks. If the camel uses too much, the hump will flop over to one side. However, once the camel eats some food and gets some rest, the hump will return to its original condition. After learning that camels do not store water in their humps, we ventured forth to find out where they do store it. We quickly discovered that camels store water in their stomaches, where it's
retained in several sac-shaped containers. Approximately one-and-a-half gallons of water can be held in a camel's stomach. Seems like a logical place for it.
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