Cama (animal)

 A cama is a hybrid between a male dromedary camel and a female llama, produced via artificial insemination at the Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai.

Breeding

An adult camel weighs six times as much as a llama. Thus, artificial insemination is the only way to produce a live and thriving cama. Only the artificial insemination of a female llama with sperm from a male dromedary camel has been successful in producing a cama. Other combinations, such as artificial insemination of a female camel with male llama sperm, have not produced viable offspring. The cama is not sterile because, unlike other well known hybrids, the camel and the llama have the same number of chromosomes. This is not generally true for other successful livestock hybrids, such as the mule. For example, the horse has 64 chromosomes and the donkey has 62, so when they breed it produces either a mule or a hinny, which each have 63 chromosomes.

The first cama showed signs of becoming sexually mature at four years of age, when it started to show signs of wanting to breed with the female guanaco and a female llama. At this stage, the first cama was a disappointment behaviorally, displaying an extremely poor...
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