Bad Karma for Cross Llama Without a Hump

It's name is Rama and it's a "cama". The cross between a camel and a llama has been bred in Dubai by a British scientist aiming to combine the best of both creatures - although it has a filthy temper.

The cama is now over two years old and has longer legs than a llama but no camel's hump. The idea was that a cama might become a form of desert mule with the carrying abilities of the camel but minus its reluctance to do human bidding.

Unfortunately, the cama appears just as ratty under pressure as the camel and lacks the llama's softer fur. It charges people and bites them and refuses to stand still.

"He doesn't have a social association with anything," said Ahsan al-Haq, the Dubai royal family vet who has worked on the project .

"If you have a companion, you are calmer and more happy. That might be the reason he is nasty."

There are hopes that a female cama, Kamilah, born in February, will be able to relate to Rama, although, like another hybrid, the mule, they are likely to be sterile.

The British scientist, Dr Julian "Lulu" Skidmore, who helped develop the cama for the Dubai camel reproduction centre said the cross-breeding is not as outlandish as, say, mating an elephant and a giraffe, as the camel and llama were part of the same species millions of years ago.

"In theory, you end up with an animal that is halfway in height between the two with a good winter coat," Dr Skidmore told the Los Angeles Times. Whether the cama will ever become as famous as the mule is another matter.

"We'll produce a few then obviously we'll probably say 'that's enough'," Dr Skidmore said.