Those canines are "primarily used to chew up wood and other tough foods" as per one of the articles, but male adult camels may also use those to bite opponents when fighting with each other for territory / mates.
"Someone once described them as a Sarlacc pit from Star Wars" ... definitely a fitting description.
Honestly that they have 4 large canini in total is by far the least interesting part about the anatomy of a camels mouth. Look at the unique rough roof of the mouth and look how they casually eat cactus. Their mouth is like a heavy leather bag filled with bricks mashing anything that gets between them.
I've seen camels eat cacti before, but it doesn't make it easier to watch them do it. They don't seem to mind much though. Perhaps it's like a chili or wasabi to them.
I saw a clip of some guy punching a camel in the head, trying to get it to move (or something).
The camel finally snapped at him, got hold of an arm or shoulder, and just ragdolled him, eventually settling in to rip chunks off while pinning his torso.
Huh. I guess the camel mouth pictures I saw before have all their teeth extracted or something? Second pic absolutely looked like that of a large cat pic to the untrained eye (mine)
Fron what I've read, there are differences in breeds (alpacas for example have very small canines compared to other species), females have smaller canines than males (on average), and they're also usually removed / clipped for domesticated camelids (example with an alpaca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyXSrIUkFNg)
I saw a video of a camel murdering a guy like a rag doll after the dude punched the camel. This is just another item tucked away in the " don't fuck with camels" folder.
PS: bonus video to show that canines are not the strangest thing about a camel's mouth: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=9NC2saE5MbQ
...it actually seems to love munching on spiny things, look at him go đ đ±
I know, but vegan extremists have often pointed out that because our teeth are shaped more like a horse's than a lions, that we must be herbivores. Which is fucking stupid for several reasons.
One of them being that horses are opportunistic meat eaters and will eat meat when given the chance, they just merely aren't aggressive or combat suited enough to hunt for it themselves.