Bits & Pieces Of Bactrian ...
By Winston D. Munnings
13 May 2008
Compared to the more commonly known one-hump Dromedary species the Bactrian Camel, characterized by two-humps, is quite massive and imposing.
This could pose quite a photographic challenge ... especially if you only have one Lens with you at the time.
During my second visit to the Miami MetroZoo (within three days), I didn't plan too well. I should have also packed a medium-ranged Nikor lens such as my trusty old friend, the 70-210 mm, or the standard Lens which I find myself using more often these days: 35-135 mm. Instead, I grabbed the Nikor 300 (F/4) mm Lens which, incidentally, is an extremely fast Lens and perfect for animal portraits shots like the images below.
Problem is, however, this animal was so massive, I couldn't get a full body shot from my shooting distance without including bits and pieces in the scene, which would have destroyed the essay.
So ...... let's see how you would put the pieces of this shoot together in what I call: Bits & Pieces Of Bactrian.
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Source: From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
The Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of north eastern Asia. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the dromedary which has one. Nearly all of the estimated 1.4 million Bactrian camels alive today are domesticated, but in October 2002 the estimated 950 remaining in the wild in northwest China and Mongolia were placed on the critically endangered species list. It is thought that the Bactrian camel was domesticated (independently from the dromedary) sometime before 2500 BC[3], probably in northern Iran, Northeast Afghanistan or southwestern Turkestan[citation needed]. The dromedary is believed to have been domesticated between 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE in Arabia. The wild population of Bactrian camels was first described by Nikolai Przhevalsky in the late 19th century.
There is some evidence that the Bactrian camel can be divided up into different subspecies. In particular, it has been discovered that a population of wild Bactrian camel lives within a part of the Gashun Gobi region of the Gobi Desert. This population is distinct from domesticated herds both in genetic makeup and in behavior. However, the significance of those differences has not yet been demonstrated.
There are possibly as many as three regions in the genetic makeup that are distinctly different from domesticated camels and there is up to a 3% difference in the base genetic code. However, with so few wild camels, it is unclear what the natural genetic diversity within a population would have been. Canadian researcher William Sommers found that these wild camels had the ability to drink saltwater slush, although it is not yet certain the camel can extract useful water from it. Domesticated camels do not attempt to drink salt water, though the reason is unknown.
