Mammals · Perissodactyla · Equidae

Ass

Equus asinus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The donkey, or ass — known in Spanish as burro, asno, jumento, borrico or pollino — is a domestic animal of the horse family. The wild African ancestors of donkeys were first domesticated at the beginning of the seventh millennium BC, two centuries before the horses of Eurasia, and since then they have been used by people as pack animals and as mounts. The arrival of agricultural machinery has brought a considerable fall in their numbers.

Weight

80 kg – 480 kg

Size

1.2 m – 1.6 m

Lifespan

30 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Herd

Lives in large groups as a strategy against predators.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

DesertMountainGrasslandHerbivore Diurnal In herds Desert Mountain Grassland Mammal

9same family

Fun facts

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.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
Habitat & 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
Lifespan in captivity: 40

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