Emoji dictionary
🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji
[bak-tree-uh n kam-uh l ih-moh-jee]
What does 🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji mean?
The Bactrian camel emoji, 🐫, depicts the two-humped camel native to Central Asia—not to be confused with its one-humped cousin, the Dromedary camel and its emoji, 🐪. Yup, there are two camel emojis.
Both camel emoji, however, often get used interchangeably for actual camels, camel mascots, deserts, exotic or historic treks in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and puns on all things “hump.”
Related words:
- ox emoji
- 💦 sweat droplets emoji
- Asian camel emoji
- Happy Hump Day
Where does 🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji come from?

The Bactrian camel emoji shows the two-humped camel that is native to Central and East Asia’s deserts. Fun fact: Whether one hump or two, camels use their humps to store fat, which they break down into water and energy, helping them travel long distances in extreme temperatures without food or drink. That made it pretty handy for Silk Road caravans.
So, why is there an emoji of this funny-looking mammal? Well, because there’s an emoji for just about every animal, it seems, especially large mammals like camels. That, and camel diversity, apparently. No camel racism, please.
Both the Dromedary and Bactrian camel emoji were approved in 2010. Across platforms, the light-brown Bactrian camel appears in profile on all platforms so you can clearly see its two humps. Some platforms, Apple and WhatsApp, further set apart their Bactrian camel emoji from its Dromedary counterpart by depicting shaggier hair. That detail is true to life, as Bactrian camels are indigenous to colder climates.

Emojipedia
Examples of 🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji
Who uses 🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji?
People use the Bactrian camel emoji and the Dromedary camel emoji interchangeably, though its seems the Dromedary camel emoji is slightly more popular on social media—probably because Bactrian camels themselves are fairly rare and therefore less familiar.
Camel on the loose in Richmond! 😳🐪🐫👍
— Alison Kosakowski Conant (@VTFarmGirl)
Outside of referencing actual camels, the Bactrian camel emoji is used to represent sports team mascots that are camels. Go Campbell County High!
What a game! Great day to be a Camel fan! Let’s do it again tomorrow 🏀💜🐫
— Dominique Wells (@DominiqueWell40)
The Bactrian camel emoji is especially used to illustrate trips to places with lots of camels, like India, Africa, and the Middle East. In fact, the Bactrian camel emoji is most popular in India—where there are lots of camels, though most of them are Dromedaries. Pictures of camel rides, in particular, are popular contexts for the Bactrian camel emoji.
🌞
Hello!
2 days desert trip from Marrakech to Zagora.
Here you will find opportunity to take some good pictures for the sunset.
🙂☶️🐫👍— Ilona Garkaja (@Gaisma8)
The Bactrian camel emoji is also often used in discussing the ancient trade route, the Silk Road, whether literal or metaphorical, including
Like in a dream! This morning I witnessed the first lights of the day on this beautiful temple lost in the desert on the ancient Silk Road. A truly amazing sight!!! 🏝🏯🐫 …
— darllon.richard (@darllonr)
Does the Silk Road still exist? 🐫🌴Probably not. But let us tell you the story about a new trade route and find out what is being transported there. A hint: It’s not silk and spices anymore – but not less precious! And it encompasses over 90 countries!
— Dirk Schaar (@DirkSchaar)
Another popular use of the Bactrian camel emoji is to illustrate pictures and posts about Hump Day (i.e., Wednesday, the “hump” in the middle of the week we all slog over to get to the weekend).
I’ll be away for most of the day so have a great hump day peeps! ☕💞💗🐫
— 🖤🎶Julie 🎶🖤 (@JulieRi39597096)
Of course, hump doesn’t always have such a PG-meaning. As a satirical Mashable article attempted of an otherwise “useless” Bactrian camel emoji in 2016: “[O]ur double-humped buddy, is clearly a sex symbol. One hump for hump day, two humps for humping on hump day.” Bom chicka wah wah.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of 🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of 🐫 Bactrian Camel emoji that will help our users expand their word mastery.