STUDIES ON SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS IN CAMELS

Abstract

The present study was conducted in Maryout Experimental Station Desert Research Center, 35 Km South west of Alexandria (latitude 31.0° N, longitude 29.8° E). The study started in June, 1997 and lasted 10 month in order to study the effects of water deprivation (experiment 1) and drinking diluted seawater containing 14539 ppm TDS (experiment II) during both summer and winter on some physiological and behavioral responses in camels (Camelus dromedaries). Four adult she camels, selected at random, aged 12 years and weighed 558.6±10.74 kg on average were kept outdoors in 15 xll meter open yard and fed ad-libitum on berseem hay and fresh acacia. They were left untreated for 2 wk at the start to be adapted to the experimental ration. They drank fresh tap water (680 ppm, TDS) ad-libitum. This period served as control period (zero time) for both experiment I and II.