Camels

Camels
(Item)

Sources

Camels are a form of livestock kept in Dromedary Pens. They are acquired through luring them from the wild by leaving straw in a pen.

Cost

• Straw

Use

Camels produce:

• Dung - 1 for every 10 straw consumed
• Camel Milk - from Female Camels after giving birth if fed Honey
• Camel Pheromone - 1 every four Egyptian days when your pen has 10 of the same gender (all 10 are male or all 10 are female)

You can slaughter a camel to receive:

• 6 leather
• 10 oil for males, 50 oil for females
• 30 Camel Meat
• Occasionally produces Animal Bone depending on your Dexterity skill
• Occasionally produces one type of insect, Skinlickers, White Sawflies, Toad Sawflies, Bat Mites, Stone Flies, Hairy Slugs or Rose Mites in quantities depending on your Arthropodology skill level [Insects are placed directly into your inventory].

Attracting Camels

Elusive beasts for their size, camels are not catch-able in the wild (unlike Sheep). The only way to attract one is to leave a good quantity of straw in a Dromedary Pen, leave the door open, and wait for a hungry camel to move in.

Every day at midnight (Egypt time), in each section of Egypt (an amount smaller than a region, possibly 1k coord squares), a single camel will move into the Dromedary Pen that contains the most straw and whose pen door is open. The sex of the camel appears to be randomly determined. Upon moving in, the camel will eat all of the straw in the pen.

Once a camel moves into a pen, it will not run away, so it is safe to leave the pen door open. However, leaving the door open means that a new camel might move in, devouring your entire feed stock. Thus, in general, it is a good idea to keep your door closed unless you are specifically trying to attract a camel.

If you maintain a pen of 10 all male or all females, they will produce Camel Pheromones which are used in Essences.

Feeding

A Camel eats 120 Straw per Egyptian day. All the camels in a pen eat 10 straw at the same time. Note that if there is not enough straw to feed all the camels, none of them will eat. Camels will eventually die if left without food for long enough.

In T4, it appeared that camels could survive for at least 10 real-time days without feeding. In T5 you will get a message that the camels look "emaciated" after 5-7 Egyptian days without feeding. After that, you will get a message that your camels are "starving".

It appears that camels now eat on a random schedule. Sometimes on or near the Egyptian hour, and sometimes on or near the half-hour.

Camels in a pen occasionally reproduce. I have found 11 camels in a pen, where one had been attracted in and one was born.

Other Interest

You are able to request a camel as a camp decoration.

Camels as "Event Sculptures" can be found in people's compounds, or outside Memphis in the sand.