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POV: It’s shedding season and your winter coat is officially cancelled. 🐪✂️
Today is World Camel Day, a day dedicated to celebrating one of the most iconic and resilient animal families on Earth.
The Bactrian camels here at your Toronto Zoo are trading in their fluffy winter look for a lighter summer wardrobe, and sometimes they appreciate a little help from their Wildlife Care team!
These incredible animals grow a thick winter coat to help them withstand temperatures as low as -40°C, then shed it as temperatures climb, allowing them to stay comfortable in heat reaching +40°C. This seasonal coat change is one of the many adaptations that helps them thrive in extreme environments, and makes them perfectly suited to life in a Canadian zoo.
Camel shedding season doesn't happen overnight. It can take several weeks for their Wildlife Care team to groom all of the camels, as each animal begins shedding at a different time. The team uses a variety of grooming tools to help remove loose fur, including a rake that is safe to use for this purpose, especially for lifting out thick clumps of shedding hair from harder-to-reach areas. Brushes and electric shears are also used during positive reinforcement training sessions, allowing the camels to voluntarily participate in their own care.
While many Bactrian camels are domesticated, their wild relatives face a much tougher reality. Wild Bactrian camels are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with fewer than 950 individuals remaining in remote regions of Mongolia and China.
A little extra fluff on the ground today is a reminder of an incredible species worth protecting. 💛