THE owners of a farm shop and tea shop were stunned to find one of their two camels was giving birth – as they are both female.

Farmer Andrew and Maria Henshaw had no idea that Doris the camel, who lives with her half-sister Delilah, was in the family way until she began to calve.

Mr Henshaw, who runs the Mainsgill Farm Shop near Richmond, North Yorkshire, said he half suspected Jimmy the llama in the pen next to Doris may be responsible, as he is such a rascal. But he reckoned that Doris, who has not been near a male camel for more than a year, was probably just expecting when she was brought from a farm in Cornwall.

Mr Henshaw said he had been up early, lambing, and was leaving the shed to scrub up and open the tea shop when a livestockman came running over to tell him one of the camels was giving birth.

Mr Henshaw, a 46-year-old father of three, said: “This was totally out of the blue. When the camel was first born he sounded like a dinosaur with the noise he was making, like something off Jurassic Park.

“Now a few hours later, he looks like a giraffe with his long neck, or the Loch Ness monster because of his two floppy humps.”

The family will keep the male baby camel and are running a competition to name the new arrival. Mr Henshaw, , said the family bought Doris and Delilah to replace Kevin the camel when he died last year, as he had been so popular with visitors.