176 A.M. Jemmett et al.
FIG. 1 The evolution of the three Old World camelid species (dromedary Camelus dromedarius, Bactrian camel Camelus bactrianus and wild camel Camelus ferus) and the New World camelid species (guanaco Lama guanicoe, llama Lama glama, alpaca Vicugna pacos and vicuña Vicugna vicugna) from the ancestral Poebrodon. MYA, million years ago.
The domestication of the Bactrian camel occurred long after the estimated time of its divergence from the wild camel, such that the wild camel is neither the direct progenitor of the Bactrian camel nor a feral version of the species but a sister species. Here we argue for the use of the accurate English
common name of wild camel for C. ferus, ideally alongside its Indigenous names to correctly differentiate these Critically Endangered wild animals from their domesti- cated congeners.
Camel names
Despite the extensive evidence supporting a species-level distinction between C. ferus and C. bactrianus (Han, 2002; Ji et al., 2009; Silbermayr et al., 2009; Jirimutu et al., 2012; Mohandesan et al., 2017; Felkel et al., 2019; Fitak et al., 2020; Ming et al., 2020), the English common names currently used for C. ferus are wild Bactrian camel, wild two-humped camel and wild camel. As the name Bactrian camel refers to the potential place of domestication in the ancient region of Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan), we believe that the use of Bactrian should not be applied when describing the wild species as it is inaccurate and confuses the distinction between these species. Throughout this text we use the English common name wild camel to de- scribe C. ferus and Bactrian camel to describe C. bactrianus.
We are not proposing this name but reporting a position taken by most wild camel researchers who, writing in English, now use wild camel or wild two-humped camel exclusively in research publications (Farnworth et al., 2011; Burger et al., 2019; Lado et al., 2020). The wild camel, originally given the scientific name
Camelus bactrianus ferus, reverted to the first available name based on a wild population (as a standard naming change for presumed progenitor species, not because of spe- cies distinction), C. ferus (Gentry et al., 2004). Wild camels were first described by the Russian explorer and geographer Nikolaj Przwalski in 1878 (Hare, 2008). Unknown to the Western world until this point, wild camels were presumed to be either a feral version of the Bactrian camel or the wild ancestor from which the Bactrian camel was domesticated, hence this species being named C. bactrianus ferus, mean- ing wild/feral Bactrian camel. Throughout its range across Mongolia and China, the wild camel was thought of and consequently named locally as a separate species from the Bactrian camel (Hare, 1997) based on both the behavioural characteristics of wildness and distinctmorphological differ- ences (Plate 1). These differences include smaller, pyramid- shaped humps, smaller body and slimmer legs in the wild camel (Ji et al., 2009) and a flatter skull. The name for the wild camel in Mongolia is хавтгай (khavtgai) translating to ‘flat head’. In China the animal is called 野骆驼 (ye luo tuo), which means ‘wild camel’.
Oryx, 2023, 57(2), 175–179 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605322000114
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