Big Pine Key Prickly-pear vs Dromedary Camel

Opuntia triacantha compared with Camelus dromedarius

Key Differences

• Big Pine Key Prickly-pear is Near Threatened while Dromedary Camel is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Big Pine Key Prickly-pear	Dromedary Camel
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Mammalia (Mammals)
Order	Caryophyllales (Caryophyllales)	Artiodactyla (Even-toed Ungulates)
Family	Cactaceae	Camelidae (Camels)
Genus	Opuntia	Camelus (Camels)
Species	Opuntia triacantha	Camelus dromedarius

Conservation Status

Big Pine Key Prickly-pear

NT — Near Threatened

Dromedary Camel

NE — Not Evaluated

Population: ~15.0M

Trend: Stable →

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Big Pine Key Prickly-pear	Dromedary Camel
Diet	—	Herbivore
Average Lifespan	—	40 years
Average Length	—	2.3 m
Average Weight	—	600.0 kg

Habitat & Geographic Range

Big Pine Key Prickly-pear

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Dromedary Camel

Habitat

Inhabits deserts and xeric shrublands within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Distributed across Australia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Sudan.

Big Pine Key Prickly-pear

The Big Pine Key Prickly-pear (Opuntia triacantha) is a species in the genus Opuntia. It is currently classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Dromedary Camel

The dromedary is the single-humped camel, domesticated over 4,000 years ago. The hump stores fat, not water.