Camelidae - Blog Posts
Loved this one and read about it. Working on the illustration was very relaxing and came out nicely. While working on the head, I was getting slightly confused but in the end, it was all good. I hope you enjoy the sheet as much as I did studying this mysterious and relatively new species. (When I say relatively new is because not so long ago it wasn't classified as a species). Check out the process: Instagram Join the Club
Unlike the horses, this time is different. If Asia has camels as war machines, South America has its equivalent: The Llama.
I don’t think there is any other animal that involves cultural symbolism, evolution of a civilization and an inexhaustible source as the Lama for the Inca culture. This animal was vital in the bloomed of Inca’s civilization.
Its wool made them capable to conquer highs that were unthinkable in any other way, not just because its endurance but because its wool that protect Incas from the freezing temperatures.
Regarded also as a noble symbol, Incas were often buried with llamas and one of it’s Gods, Urcuchillay, was depicted as a Llama.
Probably it’s only enemy are the pumas, making this animal, as the camel, an infalible machine against nature. Studying this family made think of how hard can be for life to thrive in certain conditions. It makes feel as is nature is really testing its inhabitants in a fearfully battle for survival, where the loser, the one that cannot adapt will be invariably, extinct.
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Let me introduce you to one of the strongest family, the Camelidus. I still remember vividly the first time I saw a camel in my life. I was no more than ten years old and I couldn’t believe my eyes how massive this animals are. Somehow I got amazed. How awkward it feels by its long extremities that seem they don’t have full control. Or the unmanageable long neck that is crowned for a head that I’m sure was the idea for many monsters of Star Wars. At first glance, it look like if many mistakes came together to create this animal.
However, how wrong I was. If there is an animal that defy nature in its extremes conditions, it will be the camel and its relatives. They can live literally everywhere. From the coldest to the hottest, and can flourish even when abundance is limited. Excellent distance devourers and the best administrating water. Their sight is exceptional and can run at a formidable speed. Their bodies are made to take the best from the worst the environment can provide.
If the horse was crucial in human evolution, the taming of the camel I’d like to think was rather smart. A living tank where locomotive transportation wasn’t even a coarse sketch, that provides more than the indispensable to survive in the worst conditions. ___
Wild Bactrian Camels where thought to be just feral Camels that escaped to the wild. However, further genetic studies proved that is a different species that diverged from the Bactrian Camel more than a million years ago.
It is critically endangered and is recognized as the eighth most endangered large mammal in the world, remaining no more than 1400 specimens in the wild. Illegal hunting, habitat destruction, hybridization with domestic camels, and the competence for resources with domestic stock are some of the main threats for this animal.
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