Why can't a dead "desert boat" be touched?

Camels are called desert boats. Although camels are of little use now, they can only be used for food and tourism. But in ancient times, camel caravans connected the East and the West through the Silk Road, which can be said to have made great contributions to human civilization. As one of the most important means of transportation in ancient times, camels growing in Gobi desert, grassland and desert also have many legends and taboos. One of them is that if you meet a dead camel in the desert, you can't touch it.

As the king of the desert, the dead camel has no water in its body. Camels have many body structures that are specially grown for the special desert environment, such as body hair that can reflect sunlight and keep body temperature, long legs that can stay away from the hot ground, long eyelashes and multiple eyelids that can resist wind and sand. The most famous is its unique hump. The hump of an adult camel weighs 40 kilograms.

Camels are divided into single-humped camels and double-humped camels, and China is one of the origins of double-humped camels. For a long time in the past, people mistakenly thought that the reason why camels could not eat for more than a month and could not drink for two weeks was because they had a "water storage tank" on them, and the camel's hump not only contained fat that could provide energy, but also water.

Later, it was discovered that there was only fat and no water in the camel's hump. When food is scarce, these fats can be decomposed to provide energy for camels and support them to find food sources. The time varies from ten days to dozens of days. Camels need to consume 3.5 kg of water in their bodies to get 1 kg of water under the combined action of oxygen and water if they want to turn these fats into water.

Such a loss-making business, unless the camel wants to commit suicide or lose weight, it will definitely not do so. Camels can go without drinking water for more than ten days, first, because camels absorb a lot of water, second, because camels use less water, and third, because camels are more drought-tolerant.

The water absorption of camels is amazing. After finding the water source, it can quickly replenish hundreds of kilograms of water for the body in a very short time. Camel's water is not stored in the hump, one part is dozens of water drops in the stomach, and the other part is red blood cells in camel's blood. In addition, camels are unique in saving water.

Dead camels may also explode and hurt people, causing the spread of diseases. First, the camel's body temperature is 34 degrees Celsius at night and as high as 4 1 Celsius during the day. Only when the body temperature is higher than this will the camel sweat. Secondly, once water is lacking, the curved and continuous pipeline in the camel's nasal cavity will give up the usual moist state, generate hard skin and stop secreting body fluids. At the same time, slow-moving camels will reduce the speed of metabolism in the body, and the kidneys will reabsorb urine to keep water as much as possible.

In addition, compared with humans, losing 12% of water will be life-threatening, and the hydrophilicity of camel hemoglobin determines that it will be life-threatening if it loses more than 30% of its body weight. So, you can't find anything on a camel dying of thirst in the desert. What's more, a dead camel may explode.

Not only camels, but also all large dead animals may explode. This is mainly because animals like camels still have a lot of fat in their humps after they die. In the absence of oxygen, fat is decomposed in anaerobic environment, and eventually it becomes organic acid, methane and carbon dioxide, while protein is decomposed by microorganisms, and finally it produces gases such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.

Because of the high temperature in the desert, the corpse will rot faster, and a lot of gas will be enclosed in the camel's body, just like an inflated balloon, which will explode when punctured. Not only because it will be injured or burned, but also because a large number of microorganisms, such as Staphylococcus pyogenes and Salmonella, decompose the body in the camel, which is likely to enter the human body with the explosion, threatening personal safety.

Even if you meet a dead camel in the desert, you should think twice, because there may be water in it, but it is poisonous. In fact, there are not only camels but also dead animals in the desert. We'd better not touch them. Because many animals carry a variety of viruses and germs, coupled with microorganisms produced in the process of decomposition, it is likely to threaten human beings.

On the other hand, in fact, in the dry desert environment, the probability of camels becoming giants is not so high. The reason why people are warned not to touch the dead camel easily also contains awe.

Camels are very docile and hardworking. They are rare gods of dependence and protection in ancient human deserts, so the ancients also respected them.