# Interfertility of camel species?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interfertility-of-camel-species/658020>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 10, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interfertility-of-camel-species/658020 "2013-05-10T19:46:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deaftom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@deaftom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deaftom)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interfertility-of-camel-species/658020/1 "2013-05-10T19:46:30Z")

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I live in rural Kentucky horse-farm area not far from a farm that bucks the trend and instead raises bison for meat, leather and I don’t know what else. Recently, I drove past it and was startled to see five camels in an otherwise-empty field. Although they were huddled together presumably for company, I could see that there were three dromedaries (single-humped) and two Bactrians (twin-humped).  
Seeing the two kinds mixed together prompted me to wonder if they were also mixed-sex and then to muse: are the two species interfertile? If so, how many humps does the result have? One? Two? Two and a half? Three? Not finding the answer in Cecil’s online compedium of knowledge and wisdom or in this Forum, I put the question (okay, six questions) to you all.

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**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interfertility-of-camel-species/658020/2 "2013-05-10T20:23:05Z")

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Wikipedia has this pretty much covered: [Hybrid camel - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_camel)

Interestingly camel-llama hybrids (camas) can also be produced by artificial insemination, which is of note as camels and llama belong belong to different tribes - I’m not sure if there are any known mammalian hybrids where the lowest shared taxonomic rank is as high.

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interfertility-of-camel-species/658020/3 "2013-05-10T20:30:44Z")

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Interesting wiki! The pertinent part that answers the OP is:

> [@](#):
>
> … It usually has a single large hump, sometimes slightly divided, and is larger than both parents …

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**Author:** ![deaftom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@deaftom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deaftom)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interfertility-of-camel-species/658020/4 "2013-05-13T19:08:22Z")

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Thanks! Always knew the SD Teeming Masses were, collectively, at least as edifying as the Master himself.