a "horse" designed by "need based" criterias:

The Amazing Camel

Everything you ever wanted to know about the amazing camel (and more probably).

The Amazing Camel (From Moody Press) Meet the Very Technical, Highly Engineered Dromedary Camel.  When I'm hungry, I'll eat almost anything- A leather bridle, a piece of rope, my master's tent, Or a pair of shoes.  My mouth is so tough a thorny cactus doesn't bother it. I love to chow down grass and other plants That grow here on the Arabian desert  I'm a dromedary camel, the one-hump kind That lives on hot deserts in the Middle East. My hump, all eighty pounds of it, Is filled with fat, my body fuel. Not water as some people believe. It comes in handy, because I'm not always able to find food As I travel across the hot sands. When I don't find any chow, my body automatically Takes fat from the hump, feeds my system, And keeps me going strong. This is my emergency food supply.  If I can't find any plants to munch, my body uses up my hump. When the hump gets smaller, it starts to tip to one side. But when I get to a nice oasis and begin to eat again, My hump soon builds back to normal. I've been known to drink twenty-seven gallons of water in ten minutes. I am so fantastically designed that In a matter of minutes all the water I've swallowed Travels to the billions of microscopic cells that make up my flesh.

Naturally, the water I swallow first goes into my stomach.

There thirsty blood vessels absorb and carry it to every part of my body. 

Scientists have tested my stomach and found it empty 

Ten minutes after I've drunk twenty gallons.

In an eight hour day I can carry a four hundred pound load 

A hundred miles across a hot, dry desert 

And not stop once for a drink or something to eat. 

In fact, I've been known to go eight days without a drink, 

But then I look a wreck. 

I lose 227 pounds, my ribs show through my skin, 

And I look terribly skinny. 

But I feel great! 

I look thin because the billions of cells lose their water. 

They're no longer fat. They're flat. 

Normally my blood contains 94 percent water, just like yours. 

But when I can't find any water to drink, 

The heat of the sun gradually robs a little water out of my blood. 

Scientists have found that my blood can lose up to 

40 percent of its water, and I'm still healthy.

Doctors say human blood has to stay very close to 94 percent water. 

If you lose 5 percent of it, you can't see anymore; 10 percent, you can't 

Hear and you go insane; 12 percent, your blood is as thick as molasses 

And your heart can't pump the thick stuff. It stops, and you're dead. 

But that's not true with me. 

Why? 

Scientists say my blood is different. 

My red cells are elongated. Yours are round. 

Maybe that's what makes the difference 

This proves I'm designed for the desert, 

Or the desert is designed for me. 

After I find a water hole, 

I'll drink for about ten minutes 

And my skinny body starts to change almost immediately. 

In that short time my body fills out nicely, I don't look skinny anymore, 

And I gain back the 227 pounds I lost. 

Even though I lose a lot of water on the desert, 

My body conserves it too. 

I have a specially designed nose that saves water. 

When I exhale, I don't lose much. 

My nose traps that warm, moist air from my lungs 

And absorbs it in my nasal membranes. 

Tiny blood vessels in those membranes take that back into my blood. 

How's that for a recycling system? Pretty cool, isn't it. 

It works because my nose is cool. 

My cool nose changes that warm moisture in the air 

From my lungs into water.

But how does my nose get cool? 

I breath in hot dry desert air, 

And it goes through my wet nasal passages. 

This produces a cooling effect, and my nose stays as much as 

18 degrees cooler than the rest of my body.

I love to travel the beautiful sand dunes. 

It's really quite easy, because my feet are

specially engineered sand shoes. 

My hooves are wide, and they get even wider when I step on them. 

Each foot has two long, bony toes with tough, leathery skin 

between my soles, a little like webbed feet. 

They won't let me sink into the soft, drifting sand. 

This is good, because often my master wants me to carry him 

one hundred miles across the desert in just one day. 

(I troop about ten miles per hour.) 

Sometimes a big windstorm comes out of nowhere, 

bringing flying sand with it. 

My nostrils have special muscles 

that close the openings, keeping sand out of my nose 

but still allowing me enough air to breathe.

My eyelashes arch down over my eyes like screens, 

keeping the sand and sun out but still letting me see clearly. 

If a grain of sand slips through and gets in my eye, 

my inner eyelid automatically 

wipes the sand off my eyeball just like a windshield wiper.

Some people think I'm conceited because I always walk around 

with my head held high and my nose in the air. 

But that's just because of the way I'm made. 

My eyebrows are so thick and bushy 

I have to hold my head high to peek out from underneath them. 

I'm glad I have them though. 

They shade my eyes from the bright sun. 

Desert people depend on me for many things. 

Not only am I their best form of transportation, 

but I'm also their grocery store. 

Mrs. Camel gives very rich milk 

that people make into butter and cheese. 

I shed my thick fur coat once a year, 
and that can be woven into cloth. 

A few young camels are used for beef, 

but I don't like to talk about that. 

For a long time we camels have been called 

the "ships of the desert" because of the way 

we sway from side to side when we trot. 

Some of our riders get seasick.

I sway from side to side because of the way my legs work. 

Both legs on one side move forward at the same time, 

elevating that side. 

My "left, right left, right" motion makes my rider feel like 

he is in a rocking chair going sideways. 

When I was six months old, 

special knee pads started to grow on my front legs. 

They help me when I lower my 1000 pounds to the ground. 

If I didn't have them, 

my knees would soon become sore and infected, 

and I could never lie down. 

I'd die of exhaustion. 

By the way, 

I don't get thick knee pads because I fall on my knees. 

I fall on my knees because I already have these tough pads. 

I'm a very technical, highly engineered dromedary camel.