Camels Die From Eating Plastics

 This post is taken from IZULAT blog repost here

In the United Arab Emirates or UAE, about 1 % of camels there die because of ingesting and eating plastics which the camel mistake for a food. When the camels eat plastic, they have a feeling their stomach is full or not feeling hungry thus they die because of not eating any real foods. The type of camels on UAE are dromedary camels or Camelus dromedarius.

“As dromedaries roam the desert looking for food, they munch on plastic bags and other trash that drift into trees and pile up along roadsides. “From the camel’s perspective … if it’s not sand, it’s food,”……With a stomach full of plastic, camels don’t eat because they don’t feel hungry, and they starve to death. Plastic can also leach toxins and introduce bacteria that poison the one-humped mammals….”(Science News)

The ingested or eaten plastic materials is called “polybezoar”. It is not actually pure plastic thing but a combination of plastics, ropes, and other things trapped in the digestive tract or stomach that are stone-like mass.

“We define the ingested waste as a polybezoar, a collection of tightly packed indigestible materials which can include plastics, ropes, other litter and salt deposits trapped in the stomach or digestive tract forming a large stone-like mass.” (Science Direct)

“When camels eat plastic, it accumulates into enormous, stomach-clogging masses called polybezoars. Researchers found these polybezoars — the biggest of which weighs almost 64 kilograms — inside dead camels in the desert near Dubai…”(Science News)

“Polybeozars lead to gastrointestinal blockages, sepsis from increased gut bacteria, dehydration and malnutrition.”(Science Direct)

The main point : Camels or dromedary camels in United Arab Emirates or UAE die because of eating plastics which are trapped in their digestive tract or stomach which are called “polybezoars”.

 

image from Science News website