http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9801/20/cama.ap/
Scientists produce first cross between camel and llama
Dr. Lulu Skidmore with Rama, who was born last week at the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai.
January 20, 1998
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- It's been a bumpy ride, but Rama the Cama -- the offspring of a camel and its Andean cousin, the llama -- has brought together what 30 million years of evolution and continental drift rent asunder.
Scientists in the Emirates said Tuesday that it took two years to perfect the artificial insemination technique necessary to breed Rama's llama mom, a petite 165 pounds, with his overwhelming dad, who weighs in at 990 pounds.
The male animal was born last Wednesday, said Dr. Lulu Skidmore, a specialist in camel reproduction. It weighed 12 pounds at birth.
"We hope it will have the best qualities of both animals," said Skidmore, technical director of the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai. "In size, it's somewhere between a camel and a llama."
The newborn has the short ears and long tail of a camel, but the cloven hooves of a llama, distinct from the single footpad of the camel. He was born, too, without his father's hump.
According to Skidmore, Rama should be more mild-mannered than his camel ancestors.
For now, he is being bottle-fed on camel's milk. "If we can combine the best qualities of both animals, we can have a super animal," said Skidmore, a British citizen.
She said the cama should have the prized fleece of the llama, native to the South American Andes, but because of its larger size it should give more wool.
"In temperament it should also be calmer than a camel, and therefore better suited as a track animal," Skidmore said.
The camel and the llama descend from a species that lived about 30 million years ago.
That was in 1997...
The adult Rama The Cama
Rama the Cama has grown into a healthy and friendly animal used to close human contact: "He's absolutely fine and bouncing around the place," Skidmore said.
And so he's not lonely, Rama has recently been joined by a female cama called Kamilah.
Wednesday 27th February 2002 saw the birth of the worlds second only cama, a hybrid between a male dromedary camel and a female llama, at the Camel Reproduction Centre, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Rama the Cama, the first viable hybrid that was born, on January 14th 1998 was a male, whereas Kamilah is the first female. The birth of Rama in 1998 was considered a 30 million old miracle being the worlds first viable hybrid between a camel and a guanaco, the wild antecedent of the domesticated llama. The fact that it was a viable hybrid between a New World and an Old World camelid after 30 - 40 million years of genetic isolation was truly amazing.
Like Rama, the first Cama, Kamilahs conception was also made possible by the use of modern reproductive techniques like ultrasound and artificial insemination. Follicle development in the ovaries of her mother was monitored by ultrasound and, when a mature follicle was detected, she was inseminated with fresh camel semen. Since all camelids are induced ovulators that require the stimulus of natural mating to release the egg from the follicle, she was injected with a hormone, called gonadotrophin releasing hormone, to induce ovulation when she was inseminated. Camel semen obtained from a male dromedary camel was extended in a nutrient buffer to help keep the sperm viable and active, before it was inseminated into the llamas uterus.
The pregnancy was monitored by ultrasound at regular intervals and gestation was uneventful. Kamilah was born after 343 days, which is within the typical range for the llama (335-360 days), but is much shorter than the gestation period in the camel (385-395 days). She weighed only 5 kg at birth. This is less than a newborn llama at around 10kg and very much less than a newborn camel at 30kg. It is a striking illustration of how the size of the mother controls the size of the newborn, irrespective of the size of the father.
Camas are unique hybrid animals who shed newlight on man's understanding of mammalian evolution. The Camel family originated in North America, in the Rocky mountains. Around 30 - 40 million years ago some Camelids migrated North to Alaska, and then crossed the Bering Straits into Siberia, and than down into Mongolia. This was to become the home of the largest camelid, the two-humped Bactrian camel, whilst the smaller one-humped dromedary migrated south-west to populate the Saudi -Arabian peninsula, Iran, Pakistan and part of northern India. It is thought that camels might first have reached North Africa by human intervention, as they were not recorded in Egypt at the time of the Pharoahs.
The smaller Camelids migrated south into South American Andes, and it is believed that 5 - 10 thousand years ago the Incas domesticated the guanaco to give the llama, and the vicuna to give the alpaca. All four species can readily be made to hybridize with one another, and all the Camelids, New World and Old World, have the same diploid chromosome number of 2n =74.
Researchers term the birth of this female Cama, as exciting because they have been able to obtain a viable female hybrid between a New World and Old World camelid, in addition to the existing male hybrid. It seems it is easier for the female llama to conceive to camel semen than for the female camel to conceive to llama semen. For this reason doctors have inseminated some female llamas with camel semen and have then flushed the resulting embryos out of their uterus 8 days after fertilization. The hybrid embryos have then been transferred into surrogate camel mothers, one of which remains pregnant at the present time.
Like Rama , Kamilah is expected to attain a mature body size somewhere between those of her 85kg llama mother and her 500kg camel father. Hopefully she will maintain the good quality fleece of the llamas that can be clipped and used in the wool trade as well as have the strength of the camels to make her a useful pack animal. Researchers will also watch and see if her behaviour is more llama-like and her vocalizations more camel-like, as indeed are Ramas. Like a mule or hinny, the hybrid between a horse and donkey, she is likely to be sterile because of the inability to pair homologous chromosomes from the two parental species during meiosis. But whatever happens, she is another 30 million year old miracle baby.
This project is directed by Dr. Lulu Skidmore, with the technical assistance of Mr Tipu Billah.
Edited by - Nathan Natas on 16 October 2002 10:40:51
