Ass

• Its wild ancestor, the African wild ass, is critically endangered today: probably fewer than two hundred animals are left in the Horn of Africa.
• Crossed with a mare it produces the mule, and a jenny crossed with a stallion produces the hinny; both are almost always sterile because they have an odd number of chromosomes.
• It was domesticated in eastern Africa more than 7,000 years ago, according to the analysis of ancient and modern genomes published in 2022, and from there the African and Eurasian lineages split and diverged.
• Its wild ancestor, the African wild ass, survives but is Critically Endangered: it is one of the few domestic species whose ancestor is on the brink of disappearing.
• It is better adapted to the desert than the horse: it withstands greater water losses and rehydrates very quickly, which made it the pack animal of arid trade routes.
• Unlike the horse, it forms no stable herds in the wild: in arid environments the males are territorial and associations between adults are loose and shifting.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat and environment

Arid and semi-arid country, farms and feral populations in deserts

Sexual maturity

23.3 months

Gestation / incubation

11.8 months

Litter / clutch size

1

Life expectancy in captivity

40

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equus_africanus_asinus