Even camels can't cope: Africa's ships of the desert hit by rising temperatures

Camels are famously known as the ships of the desert, but even these hardy animals are not being spared from the extremes of rising temperatures in Africa.

The Afar region of north-eastern Ethiopia is one of the hottest and driest places on Earth, where nomads often lead camel caravans carrying salt through the desert.

"I can see my camels suffering from extreme heat," Ali Umer, a camel herder from Semera in Afar, told the BBC.

"They get blisters on their feet, their eyes become watery and the hot sand burns their skin and eats up their hair when they are sitting," said the 40-year-old who owns around 500 camels.

"Within the past one month I have lost eight camel calves because of the extreme heat, it has become much more intense and difficult.

"Even the wind, which used to bring cool air, now carries heat," he said, adding he had noticed these drastic changes in the temperature in recent years.

He is not alone in his observations: scientists, animal welfare workers and various studies all mention stress, fatigue, dehydration, disease prevalence as direct impacts of extreme heat.

The higher temperatures also indirectly make camels suffer by causing severe loss of water, vegetation, and reduced shaded areas.

North Africa and the Horn of Africa host around 80% of the world's largest population of dromedary camels - those with one hump.

Over the years, farmers and cattle herders in these regions have switched to these animals because of their resilience to harsh heat and drought conditions.

But a study based on the perception of camel herders in southern Ethiopia, published in 2025, showed that high temperatures and climate variability had had a detrimental impact on camel herd health.

"Respondents reported that climate change and variability have affected camels' health, productivity, and reproductive performance," it said.

In neighbouring Somalia, the situation appears to be more serious. Research published in June has shown that drought-related camel mortality is a widespread crisis, affecting nearly 46% of camel-owning households.

The study included nearly 6,000 pastoral households and showed that the mortality was concentrated in northern regions, with Sool reporting a "staggering mortality rate of nearly 73%".

Extreme heat is the main cause behind the drought in the region although other factors like inadequate veterinary services and animal management make things worse, experts say.

An analysis by atmospheric scientists found that high temperatures in the region were behind the 2021-22 drought, as extreme heat makes water from soil and water bodies turn into vapour and plants release water in them into air as vapour.

Veterinarians say they are treating more sick camels and are seeing more deaths due to extreme heat and drought.

"We are seeing significant increase in cases of hyperthermia in camels as a result of which they get multiple infections," Hassan Nuya Guyo, a veterinary officer in Marsabit county in north-eastern Kenya bordering Ethiopia, told the BBC.

"In the last two years, we have seen a more than 15% increase in camel deaths in our county due to extreme heat."

Disease prevalence among camels and reduced milk yield from them are as a result of climate change impacts including heat stress, according to another study conducted in the Horn of Africa.

"Time series analysis highlights significant seasonal mortality patterns, underscoring the need for targeted interventions during high-risk periods like peak summer months; such as strategic water provisioning, supplemental feeding, and enhanced disease monitoring," it said.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says extreme heat events have become a common phenomenon in several North African countries with heatwaves having increased with a clear upward trend since 1981.

It said a number of countries in the region and the Middle East reported temperatures above 50C in 2024.

WMO's State of the Climate in Africa 2025 report said North Africa recorded the most rapid warming of the six subregions - 0.43C per decade - between 1991 and 2025.

Experts say camels comfortably beat the heat up to around 40C by mainly allowing their body temperature to fluctuate by several degrees throughout the day to deal with outside temperature.

By doing that they avoid sweating and, combined with concentrated urine and dry faeces, it helps them minimise water loss, while their thick skin coat helps them ward off solar radiation.

"In many parts of the Sahara, summer temperatures now frequently exceed 50C, increasing the risk of severe heat stress, particularly when accompanied by reduced vegetation cover, water scarcity, and limited access to shade," he told the BBC.

Professor Abdelmadjid Chehma at the University of Ghardaia in Algeria, who has conducted experimental works on camels in the Sahara Desert, has a similar conclusion.

"Our works show that prolonged day-and-night heat above 41 to 45C directly attack their cells," he told the BBC.

"Their immune system suffers because such heat levels damage their white blood cells and other cells because of stress, they [the cells] struggle to repair themselves and end up destroying themselves."

For camels this means when heat stress sets in, their metabolism slows down to limit internal heat production leading to sharp reduction in food intake resulting in lethargy and generalised fatigue.

That leads to drop in milk production and also causes reproductive disorders.

Weight loss, inflammation, muscle and bone related illnesses, chemical imbalance due to kidney malfunction, infectious diseases caused by parasites were a few among them, he said.

While extreme heat is the primary culprit, its impacts become severe when other factors like loss of vegetation and water, lack of shaded areas and inadequate veterinary services add up, experts say.

This is why many herders in Ethiopia have moved their camels from the northern region, where the animals were found historically, to the south where water and vegetation are relatively available, experts there say.

"And this is not the seasonal movement of the herders," said Daniel Gelan, professor and pastoralist development researcher with Vision University in Ethiopia.