Species group · Mammals
WAnimals has 2 species of ass, in the family Equidae.
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 2.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
1 species in this group is in a threatened category according to the IUCN.
Recorded in 16 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It is the wild ancestor of every domestic donkey in the world.
From African Wild Ass
Barely a few hundred pure animals remain in the wild, in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
From African Wild Ass
Males defend territories of up to 23 km², marked with dung piles.
From African Wild 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.
From Ass
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.
From Ass
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.
From Ass