Kid Territory:Critters: Mongo the Bouncing Camel
Mongo
poses in his winter coat. He'll look like a very different camel in the
summer when he sheds his hair.
Zoo name: Mongo
Species: Bactrian camel
Location: San Diego Zoo's Camel Road
His story
Mongo, whose name is short for Mongolia, is one of the San Diego Zoo's two-humped, or Bactrian, camels. These camels are from Mongolia's Gobi Desert. It can get super hot there during a summer day and dip down to freezing temperatures on a winter night, so Bactrian camels have big changes in body hair. If you come see Mongo during the winter, he is covered in a thick, shaggy coat of body hair. He also has a large mop of hair on his head and about 12 inches (30 centimeters) of dreadlock-like hair hanging from his neck. Visit him in the summer, and he looks totally different! Mongo's thick body hair will be shed down to his skin and his glorious mop of head hair becomes a few stray strands that don't even come close to hiding his naked dome.
Trading camels
Although Mongo is perfectly adapted to surviving in the Gobi Desert, he has never set foot outside the United States. He was born in Tennessee at a large, well-run facility that is privately owned. The San Diego Zoo has a good working relationship with this facility and has sent some of our gazelles to live there, knowing the animals receive excellent care. They wanted to breed more camels and asked if they could have one of the Zoo's females. As a trade, Mongo and four guanacos were given to us in December 2004, and a female camel from our Zoo, Belle, moved to Tennessee. Mongo now lives with Amu, another female Bactrian camel. We hope they will produce a baby one day.
Bouncing for fig leaves
If Mongo had his wish, he would be eating all day long! His keepers feed him hay and alfalfa pellets throughout the day. Sometimes he gets fed branches from a fig tree. Interestingly enough, there is a fig tree that grows inside the camel exhibit. When Mongo finishes the meal his keepers have provided, keepers and visitors have seen him gathering his own food from the tree. It seems he has been practicing his leaf-picking technique: he will bounce two or three times, then rear up on his hind legs to pick the leaves with his mouth. It is very fun to watch, and crowds of visitors tend to form around his exhibit when he is in leaf-picking mode.
Where you can see him
If you would like to see Mongo and Amu, come visit them on Camel Road, just to the north of Elephant Mesa. Make sure you bring your camera because you never know what Mongo will be up to!
More
Animal Bytes: Camel
Job Profiles: So You Want to be a Keeper?, Taking Care
of Animals
Plants: Fig (Ficus)
