Emirates home to
new hybrid species:
Cama
By Prof. Talaat I. Farag MD, FRCPE, FACP,
FACMG
Dr. Lulu with her newborn cama, Kamilah
|
For millennia, the deserts were dominated by one
resilient breed of animals. The Arabs called it the "desert ship" for
its ability to withstand the harsh environmental conditions. And for
hundreds of years, camel-racing has been a most favored sport. Today,
the camel has a competitor. Recently in the Arabian Desert, a unique
and artificial hybrid known as the "cama" was born. This
specially-bred creature combines the best of both its parent animals -
the camel and the llama. In Dubai, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), a
specialized veterinary center is mating the symbol of the desert, the
camel, with the more exotic llama to produce "camas." The chief
scientific officer Dr. Julian A. (Lulu) Skidmore at the Camel
Reproduction Center (CRC) has been breeding Camas for the past five
years seeking a unique animal with the sought-after coat of the lama
and endurance of the larger camel. This project is funded by Dubai's
Crown Prince and Defense Minister H. H. Sheik Mohamed bin Rashed al-Maktoum
who was thrilled by the birth of the first male hybrid (January 14,
1998) named "Rama", and first female Cama four years later
(February 27, 2002) named "Kamilah", which in Arabic means
"perfect." Jokes aside, there is no doubt that both Rama and
Kamilah are unique hybrid animals that shed new light on our
understanding of mammalian evolution. |
Dr. Skidmore, a British veterinary who has been working for 12 years in
the U.A.E., is convinced that both camels and llamas originated from the
same ancient camelid. Although camels and llamas hail from East and West
respectively, they are both descendents of the same ancestral camelid that
inhabited the Rocky Mountains area of North America some 30 million years
ago. Some of them migrated to Mongolia via Alaska and Siberia, evolving into
the Bactrian two-humped camel. Others headed to the south to populate the
Saudi Arabian peninsula, Iran and Pakistan, where they became the smaller
one-humped dromedary. It is thought that camels might first have reached
North Africa by human intervention, as they were not recorded in Egypt at
the time of the Pharaohs. More camelids went to South America's Andes
Mountains, where they were domesticated by the Ancient Incas into llamas.
Today, the camel family comprises two species of Old World Camelids, namely
the Bactrian or two-humped camel and the dromedary or one-humped camel and
four species of New World camelids, the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuna.
All four kinds of these camelids can be made to hybridize with each other.
Despite their close links, camels and llamas do not mate in the wild
although they can be readily cross-bred as they have the same diploid
chromosome number of 2n=74. "The fact that we have now been able to obtain a
viable hybrid between a New World camelid (llama) and an Old World camelid
(camel) is very exciting," explained Dr. Skidmore. "We're getting the best
of both breeds: the fleece of the llamas is very expensive and desired by
the wool industry while the strength and patience of the camel makes the
cama an ideal pack animal," she added.
The project director Dr Lulu Skidmore, worked alongside technical
assistant Mr. Tipu Billah. Dr A.M. Billah and both Prof. Twink Allen, from
Cambridge University, and Prof. R.V. Short, of the University of Melbourne
in Australia, acted as project advisors.
Rama at different stages in his life.
The birth of Rama in 1998 was considered a "30 million old miracle" being
the world’s first viable hybrid between a camel and a guanaco, the wild
antecedent of the domesticated llama. A miracle is an understatement since
it illustrated the success of hybridizing a New World and an Old World
camelid after 30- 40 million years of genetic isolation.
Like the first cama, Rama, Kamilah’s conception was also made possible by
the use of modern reproductive techniques. Follicle development in the
ovaries of her mother (a llama) was monitored by ultrasound and, when a
mature follicle was detected, she was inseminated with fresh dromedary camel
semen collected in an artificial vagina. Since all camelids are bred through
induced ovulation, they require the stimulus of natural mating to release
the egg from the follicle. The llama was injected with a hormone, called
gonadotrophin-releasing hormone, to induce ovulation when she was
inseminated. The pregnancy was monitored by ultrasound at regular intervals
and gestation was uneventful. Kamilah was born after 343 days, which is
within the typical range for the llama (335 - 360 days), but is much shorter
than the gestation period in the camel (385-395 days). She weighed only 5 kg
at birth which is less than a newborn llama at around 10kg and very much
less than a newborn camel at 30kg. It is a striking illustration of how the
size of the mother controls the size of the newborn, irrespective of the
size of the father. Kamilah will also have a good quality coat and a size
somewhere between her 85-kg 7-year-old llama mother Fenella and
500-kg 15-year-old camel father Khawar.
Dr. Lulu is hopeful that Kamilah will maintain the good quality fleece of
the llamas that can be clipped and used in the wool trade as well as have
the strength of the camels to make her a useful pack animal.
(L-R) Close up of Kamilah and Kamilah with mother.
When discussing the camas, Dr. Lulu Skidmore sounds like a mother
talking about her cute children. "Rama is quite boastful and full of
himself, and Kamilah, however, is a bit shy." Like most parents,
Skidmore does not know how the offspring will turn out, but the scientist in
her knows that their existence is as important as their future. "Whatever
happens, we have another 30 million-year-old miracle baby," she said of
Kamilah. "We have the world's only camas."
It will be interesting to see if her behavior is more llama-like and her
vocalizations are more camel-like, as indeed are Rama's. Although scientists
are more interested to know more about the mating of Rama and Kamilah and
possibility of offspring, especially since some have linked Camas to mules
(the horse-donkey hybrid), with regards to sterility because of the
inability to pair homologous chromosomes from the two parental species
during meiosis. But whatever happens, the camas' mother, Dr. Lulu,
mentioned that there are other miracle babies on the way.
Interestingly, in Manitoba, Canada, many cattle producers are turning to
llamas for security instead of dogs. Llamas have been used as pack animals
in the South American Andes for six thousands years. The South American pack
animals eat and sleep like sheep and protect the animals as their own. Some
farmers prefer them to guard instead of dogs, since they don't bark and cost
nothing. The llamas never leave the sheep alone, while the dog will roam and
then come back to be fed. In the absence of other llamas, they will
strongly identify with other animals, with which they spend time. Recently
in North America, llamas have been used to guard sheep, ducks and cattle.
The only concern is that many male llamas try to mate with cattle and sheep!
Could the exotic cama hybrid provide a better
alternative for even llamas in North and South American farms?
Will the UAE become an exporter of camas alongside oil? Only time can answer
these candid questions!
Another interesting site with other hybrid animals can be accessed at
http://www.greenapple.com/~jorp/amzanim/crossesa.htm
Prof. Talaat I. Farag MD, FRCP(Edin), FACP, FACMG is an
adjunct professor at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA.
Email: tfarag@is.dal.ca and
drfarag@ambassadors.net
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