Joy for world’s first camel and llama cross

Rama, the world's first cama, finally has some friends to play with.

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The hybrid animal, the product of breeding a llama and a camel, has been the only creature of this kind since her birth in 1995.

New breed: a mix between a camel and a llama

But now, thanks to better breeding techniques, there are three more camas roaming the Arabian desert.

Camas are humpless and have the long fluffy coat of a llama. Their ears are half way in length between camels and llamas, but they have the strong, desert-ready legs of a camel.

Strangest of all, camas have partially cloven feet – a halfway compromise between the foot pad of the camels and cloven feet of the llamas.

The birth of the new camas is a dream come true for Dr Lulu Skidmore and her team at Dubai's Camel Reproduction Centre.

She said: 'When we started the project, we were not sure if it would even be possible to breed them. Now we have four thriving animals.

'The main aim was to see if we could get the best from both species. We thought the long coat of the llama and the strength of the camel would make for a very useful animal.'

But the breeding process was no easy feat. Only two of the females would conceive and the others would not, even if inseminated with the same sperm from the same male.

Dr Skidmore also discovered it was impossible for a male llama to impregnate a female camel.

'Only a llama mum and camel dad seems to work,' she said. 'We had two conceptions with camel mum and llama dad but neither went to term.'

But as further camas were born, the team discovered they had produced the animal they were aiming for.

The camas behave well in a pack, and are strong but smaller and easier to handle than a camel. It is too early to tell what the life expectancy of the camas will be but the team is confident they will reach a ripe old age.