Every day around 4 pm, an image pops into my Facebook feed saying: TIL – Sharks don’t know that camels exist.
And despite telling myself not to check the comments, 15 minutes later I am reading responses like “They have a horrible education system then” or questions “What if we show them to one another?“
This is why I decided to, once and for all, solve the question “do camels know sharks exist“. The answer seems obvious, no?
After all, camels live in deserts, sharks in the ocean, how on earth could the two meet one another?!
Before we answer the question, a quick note; we will not go deep into philosophical theories like Anthropical thinking or Solipsism to answer this question. We will keep those talks for bars after having 4 beers.
Do Camels Know Sharks Exist?
Despite common thinking, camels might know that sharks exist. Camels are not only confined to living in deserts; sometimes they will spend time in waters where sharks live.
Believe it or not, camels actually know how to swim, and can be often seen swimming in the sea or ocean.
One breed of dromedary camels, the Kharai camels, native to India, will swim for several hours a day to get to their favorite food, mangrove. They can be often seen crossing the sea in search of mangrove islands to feast on.
Camel racing, a multimillion sport in the Middle East, includes aquatic training as preparation for the event. Camel owners/trainers will drop the camels in the sea/ocean and let them swim (better say float) for a few hours.
It is quite probable that some shark swimming by, saw these camels floating.
In the Gulf of Oman, which borders Iran, Oman, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, there are about 30 types of sharks.
We believe that it is very possible that some of them encountered camels and that they are “aware” of a camel’s existence.
Just imagine the conversation where one shark is explaining to his pals what it saw.
– Guys, you’re not going to believe what I saw today in the water! It was some weird-looking creature with a huge neck, big feet, some bump on its back, and some weird mysterious organ attached to its back.
Bob, the shark
– Bob, you need to chill down man, you’ve been drinking too much salty water recently.
Bob’s shark friend
All jokes aside, camels meeting sharks in the water might be probable, and not as far-fetched as it seems.
What Camels And Sharks Share In Common
Camel and shark blood might contain a key ingredient for curing brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and brain cancer.
Camels, llamas, and sharks contain tiny antibodies, almost half the size of conventional, and tenth the size of human ones, which can cross certain cellular barriers that bigger human antibodies can not. [1]
These tiny antibodies could be used to help diagnose and treat different brain diseases, but also diseases like lupus, arthritis, or psoriasis.
Despite the big potential of camel and shark blood proteins, there is still a long way to go in terms of these antibodies and drugs replacing the other “common” ways of medical treatment.
TL;DR – Do Camels Know Sharks Exist?
In our opinion, camels know that sharks exist. Camels can be seen swimming in the sea or ocean where many sharks live. It is quite probable that they encountered one another.
We hope that you enjoyed our semi-satirical article and that we answered “do camels know sharks exist” properly.
References
[1] Flajnik, Martin F., Nick Deschacht, and Serge Muyldermans. “A case of convergence: why did a simple alternative to canonical antibodies arise in sharks and camels?.” PLoS biology 9.8 (2011): e1001120.