The pink, balloon-like mass that sometimes hangs from a male camel’s mouth is not a stomach, a lung, or any internal organ being regurgitated. It is the dulla (also spelled dulaa or dulah), a specialized extension of the soft palate found in male dromedary camels. The dulla is inflated with air and pushed out of the mouth primarily as a sexual display during the breeding season, though it can also appear when the animal is agitated or stressed. The sight is startling enough that the internet is full of alarmed descriptions of camels “throwing up their organs,” but the reality is both less gruesome and more interesting than that.
What the Dulla Actually Is
The dulla is a diverticulum, essentially a pouch or sac, that forms on the underside of the soft palate. Think of it as a floppy, balloon-shaped outgrowth attached to the roof of the mouth, toward the back of the throat. Male dromedary camels can fill this pouch with air, causing it to inflate and protrude from the side of the mouth as a large, glistening, reddish-pink mass. When deflated and at rest, it sits tucked away inside the oral cavity, completely invisible from the outside.
1Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. CamelidaeThe confusion with a stomach is understandable. The dulla is wet, fleshy, and can extend quite dramatically from the mouth, looking for all the world like an internal organ that has no business being on the outside. Its surface is often coated in saliva and sometimes a frothy mixture, adding to the visceral appearance. But it has no connection to the digestive tract. It is oral tissue, not gastric tissue, and the camel is inflating it rather than vomiting it up.
It is worth noting that camels do also genuinely spit, and that behavior is separate from dulla display. Actual camel spitting involves bringing up partially digested stomach contents and projecting them at a target, usually a person or another camel that has annoyed them. The dulla protrusion, by contrast, is a passive display that the camel holds in place while making gurgling vocalizations. Both behaviors look unpleasant, but they serve completely different purposes.
Why Male Camels Display the Dulla
The dulla is a mating signal. Male dromedary camels extrude it during the breeding season (called “rut”) as part of an elaborate behavioral display aimed at attracting females and intimidating rival males. The display is not subtle. A rutting male will inflate the dulla out one side of his mouth, produce loud gurgling and roaring sounds, and often simultaneously spread urine across his own back using his tail. He may also grind his teeth and foam heavily at the mouth. The whole performance is designed to broadcast his reproductive fitness.
2Reproduction. Hormonal and behavioural patterns in the male camel (Camelus dromedarius)From a female camel’s perspective, a large, healthy-looking dulla presumably signals a strong, hormonally active male. From the perspective of a competing male, the whole display serves as a warning. Rutting male camels become aggressive and difficult to manage, and the dulla protrusion is part of the suite of threat behaviors they use to establish dominance before resorting to actual fighting. Males will bite at each other’s legs and necks during these contests, and the sharp canine teeth of a male camel can cause serious injuries to another male’s dulla if it is extruded during a fight.
The dulla can also appear outside of the mating context. Veterinary literature notes that it may protrude when a camel is excited, disturbed, or even while under anesthesia, suggesting that the mechanism of extrusion is partly involuntary and tied to general arousal states, not exclusively to sexual motivation.
1Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. CamelidaeThe Hormonal Cycle That Drives It
Dromedary camels are seasonal breeders, and the dulla display is tightly linked to testosterone levels. Research on male dromedary hormonal cycles has shown that between roughly January and April, blood testosterone levels surge to around 30 nanograms per milliliter, compared to about 2 nanograms per milliliter during the rest of the year. During this high-testosterone window, males become aggressive, blow out the dulla, vocalize constantly, and spread urine over their backs.
2Reproduction. Hormonal and behavioural patterns in the male camel (Camelus dromedarius)The seasonal timing varies somewhat by region. In the Middle East and North Africa, the rutting season typically falls in the cooler winter and early spring months, roughly aligning with shorter day lengths and lower temperatures. This is not coincidence. Studies have found that manipulating light exposure and ambient temperature can actually trigger rutting behavior outside of the natural season. Males housed under short artificial day lengths with reduced temperatures showed increased testosterone, higher libido scores, and larger testicular volume compared to control animals, indicating that environmental cues like daylight and temperature play a direct role in switching on the hormonal cascade that produces the dulla display.
3PubMed. Effect of short artificial lighting and low temperature in housing rooms during non-rutting season on reproductive parameters of male dromedary camelsFor camel handlers, this seasonal pattern is practically important. A male dromedary in full rut is genuinely dangerous. The combination of aggression, unpredictability, and sheer size (a mature male can weigh over 600 kilograms) means that camel owners often separate bulls from the rest of the herd during the breeding season, or manage them with particular care. The dulla display itself is one of the first visible signs that a male is entering rut, so handlers learn to watch for it.
Actual Camel Spitting and How It Differs
When people say “camels spit,” they are usually describing one of two very different things that get conflated. The first is true spitting, where the camel brings up a wad of partially fermented stomach contents (camels are foregut fermenters with a three-compartment stomach) and launches it at a perceived threat. This is a defensive behavior common to both sexes and to all ages. It is green, foul-smelling, and remarkably accurate. Llamas and alpacas do the same thing, though typically with less volume and range.
The second is the dulla extrusion, which is exclusively a male dromedary behavior and has nothing to do with the stomach. No material is being ejected. The dulla sits there, inflated, while the male gurgles and froths. The saliva and foam associated with rutting males can certainly end up on nearby people or objects, but the mechanism is drooling and frothing, not spitting.
The two behaviors get mixed up in viral videos partly because both involve something unpleasant coming out of a camel’s mouth, and partly because rutting males sometimes do both in quick succession. A rutting male who is also irritated by a human might spit stomach contents at the person while simultaneously displaying the dulla, creating a scene that is hard to parse without knowing what you are looking at. But the dulla is not being expelled. It remains attached to the soft palate and retracts back into the mouth once the display ends.
When the Dulla Gets Injured
Because the dulla protrudes from the mouth during the most aggressive period of a male camel’s year, it is vulnerable to injury. A clinical study of dulla injuries in dromedary camels identified seven distinct categories of damage. The most common were lacerated wounds and cases where the dulla protruded and could not be retracted, each accounting for roughly 23% of cases. Other injuries included food becoming impacted in the tissue, puncture wounds from the sharp canine teeth of rival males, abscesses, blood-filled swellings, and in the most severe cases, gangrene of the tissue.
4PubMed Central. Soft palate (dulla) injuries in camels (Camelus dromedarius): clinical, hematobiochemical, histopathological findings and treatment outcomesCamels with a dulla stuck in the protruded position showed swelling and an inability to pull the tissue back into the oral cavity. Some stopped eating and developed stiffness in the neck and mild breathing difficulty, since the bulging tissue partially obstructs the airway and makes swallowing painful.
4PubMed Central. Soft palate (dulla) injuries in camels (Camelus dromedarius): clinical, hematobiochemical, histopathological findings and treatment outcomesAn earlier surgical report described a similar picture across 26 affected camels. Sixteen had protruding, swollen, fluid-filled dullas, and ten had dullas that had become completely trapped inside the oral cavity, pressing against surrounding tissue. Amputated samples of protruded dullas showed ulcers, swelling, and blood clots within the tissue, while trapped dullas were often impacted with food and surrounded by scar tissue.
5Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery. Surgery of the Injured Dulla in Dromedary Camels (Camelus dromedarius)The standard veterinary treatment for a seriously damaged dulla is surgical removal. This is not as drastic as it sounds. The dulla is not essential for eating, breathing, or general health. It serves a reproductive display function, and males that have had it surgically removed can still mate. For working camels and those kept in close quarters with humans, removing a chronically injured or infected dulla is often the most practical solution. The surgical approach is considered reliable and effective for managing these conditions.
4PubMed Central. Soft palate (dulla) injuries in camels (Camelus dromedarius): clinical, hematobiochemical, histopathological findings and treatment outcomesPoll Glands and the Full Rutting Package
The dulla is only one component of the male camel’s breeding display. Both dromedary and Bactrian camels (the two-humped species) have poll glands, located on the back of the head, that secrete a dark, pungent fluid during the breeding season. This oily, brown-to-black substance mats the hair along the top of the skull and produces a strong odor that can be detected at a distance.
1Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. CamelidaeResearch on Bactrian camel poll glands has found that testosterone concentrations in the glands themselves increase roughly fivefold during the breeding season compared to non-breeding periods, and cholesterol levels in the glands roughly double at the same time. The relationship between cholesterol and testosterone in these glands makes sense biochemically, since cholesterol is the raw material the body uses to manufacture testosterone.
6PubMed Central. Multi-Omics Profiling Identifies Apolipoprotein E as an Important Regulator of Steroidogenesis in Bactrian Camel Poll Glands During the Breeding SeasonThe overall effect of a male camel in full rut is multisensory. The dulla is the visual component: a large, glistening mass hanging from the mouth. The poll gland secretion is the olfactory component: a potent scent that marks the male and his surroundings. The gurgling vocalizations are the auditory component. And the urine-spreading behavior layers on additional scent signaling. Each element communicates reproductive readiness through a different sensory channel, blanketing the environment with evidence that this particular male is available and hormonally primed.
Researchers working with hormonal data from the glands on the back of the neck have also found high levels of androgens in these secretions (around 36 nanograms per milliliter during rutting season), confirming that the scent signals are not just incidental leakage but are loaded with the same hormones driving the behavioral changes.
2Reproduction. Hormonal and behavioural patterns in the male camel (Camelus dromedarius)Do All Camelids Have a Dulla
The dulla is primarily associated with the dromedary camel (the one-humped species found across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of South Asia). Bactrian camels have a similar structure but it is less prominent and less frequently described in the literature. The smaller South American camelids, including llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuñas, do not have a dulla. They spit defensively just like their larger cousins, but they lack the inflatable soft palate pouch entirely.
This difference likely reflects evolutionary divergence. The South American camelids split from their Old World relatives millions of years ago, and their mating behaviors evolved along different lines. Male llamas and alpacas compete for females through chasing, body-slamming, and neck wrestling, but they do not produce the elaborate multisensory display that dromedary bulls use. The dulla appears to be a specialized adaptation that developed in the lineage leading to the large Old World camels, probably in response to mating competition dynamics specific to their social structure and habitat.
Living and Working Around Rutting Camels
For the millions of people across North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and South Asia who live and work with dromedary camels, the rutting season is a period that demands respect and caution. A bull in rut is not just displaying the dulla for entertainment. He is hormonally supercharged, aggressive, and unpredictable. Experienced camel handlers often describe the rutting season as the most dangerous period of the year for working around male animals.
Some herders manage the problem by timing breeding carefully, keeping only one or two bulls and separating them from the herd when not needed. In racing camel operations, males are sometimes castrated to prevent rutting behavior entirely, which eliminates the dulla display along with the aggression. Castration also stops the poll gland secretion and the urine-spreading behavior, making the animals substantially easier to handle year-round.
In camel beauty pageants, which are a significant cultural tradition in parts of the Gulf states, a large and vigorous dulla display during the breeding season can actually be a mark of a prized bull. The size and condition of the dulla are sometimes informally assessed as indicators of a male’s health and vitality. This creates an interesting tension with the veterinary reality that an oversized or frequently protruded dulla is more prone to the injuries described above. A male that produces a dramatic display may be the same male that eventually needs surgical intervention because his dulla has been lacerated in a fight or has become too swollen to retract.
Tourism operations in camel-keeping regions also deal with the consequences of rutting season. The videos of camels “spitting out their stomachs” that circulate online are almost always filmed during encounters between tourists and rutting males. The combination of hormonal agitation, unfamiliar humans, and the natural tendency to display when excited produces exactly the kind of dramatic footage that goes viral. The camel is fine. He is doing what male dromedaries have done for thousands of years. He just happens to be doing it in front of someone with a smartphone who has never seen a dulla before.