AKTAU, Kazakhstan — In most of the world, camels come in two types: two-humped Bactrian and one-humped dromedary.

But nothing is so simple out in the desert of Kazakhstan, where the camels roaming about, munching shrubs, come in a dizzying array of back shapes — most of them some version of one-and-a-half-humped. This is no accidental, naturally occurring oddity.

“All the best specialists in hybridization are in Kazakhstan,” Yuri V. Gabrov, director of the Moscow Ethnographic Society and an authority on camels, said in an interview. “They are way out in front.”

Kazakhstan, a vast and sparsely populated nation in Central Asia, is growing its camel herds by mating two-humped and one-humped camels, producing hybrids that are hardy to cold like Bactrian breeds, while producing copious milk like dromedaries.