Are Horses Afraid of Camels? No, they’re not. But if you’ve noticed a horse react adversely to the presence of a camel, I can understand why you may feel that way. It turns out that it isn’t the camel, it’s its odor. While the odor isn’t scary, it can be repulsive. So when a horse reacts negatively to a camel’s odor it may seem like it is scared when in fact it isn’t.
Let’s dig deeper and analyze this phenomenon from different angles.
Are Horses Afraid of Camels?
The answer is No. While horses are afraid of a great many things, there is no reason for a horse to be afraid of a camel. The camel, not unlike the horse, is a herbivore and a herd animal. They also do not compete in any way, neither for food or territory. In the wild, they are found in different parts of the world and are not known to interact with each other.
Despite its odd shape and giant dimensions, the camel is a fairly docile animal. Like horses, camels have been domesticated and are used for various purposes such as transportation, racing, and even tourism. In fact, many people who are afraid of horses have no problem getting on a camel’s back.
So if they are not afraid of camels, why do horses react so negatively to their odor?
The answer has to do with the composition of the camel’s odor. According to the Daily Wildlife, camels smell the way they do because they live outside in hot and dry environments, they urinate on themselves, some of their glands excrete a foul-smelling fluid and because they ruminate they tend to have gases coming up from their stomachs.
All these reasons make not just horses, but also humans, feel repelled by the smell. When we are repelled by something, we tend to associate that feeling with fear or disgust. That is why it is easy to misunderstand a horse’s reaction to a camel’s odor.
Do Horses Hate Camels?
No, they don’t. And they have no reason to. In most cases, horses and camels inhabit parallel worlds. And so why would they hate something they don’t even know exists?
In some parts of the world, however, their paths do cross. In Africa, for example, there are many areas where camels and horses share the same landscape. And in these cases, the two animals have been known to get along just fine.
The only time when there may be an issue is when a camel is introduced into a herd of horses that have never seen one before. In these cases, the horses may react out of curiosity or fear of the unknown. But once they realize that the camel is harmless, they will go back to their normal behavior.
Can Horses and Camels co-exist?
Yes, horses and camels can co-exist. As we saw earlier, both are herbivores and live in herds. They are also both domesticated animals that are used for various purposes.
In many Shepard cultures, it is not uncommon to find both animals living side by side. And in some cases, they are even used for the same purpose. In parts of Africa and the Middle East, for example, camels are often used to carry water from one place to another. And in Asia, they are sometimes used as pack animals to transport goods from one market to another.
These same cultures will also have horses and often they will live side by side with the camels. But these horses will have grown up around camels and they would have their whole lives to get acclimatized to their foul odor.
Final Thoughts
So, are horses afraid of camels? No, horses are not instinctively afraid of camels. They have no reason to be. Camels are relatively harmless animals. But their odor can be quite repulsive to both horses and humans. In some cases, a horse’s reaction to the smell may be misconstrued as fear.
In many communities around the world, horses and camels live side by side without any problems. And there is no evidence that at a species-level horses dislike camels. In most parts of the world their paths do not cross and so they have no reason to.
