Here you'll find :
* A bit of history : the origins of the donkey
* descriptive morphology
* a look at the different races
* the various uses of the donkey
*A note on the decline and come-back of the donkey

 

SOME SALIENT POINTS

 

 

Classification :

Branch : Vertebrates
Class : Mammals
Family: Equidae
Superorder : Ungulata
Order : Perissodactyls
Genus : Equus
Species : asinus
 

 

 The donkey (or ass) family
male : donkey or ass
breeding male : stud donkey
female : she-donkey, she-ass or jenny
young : foal

 

Cross breeds :
Donkey and Mare = mule
Horse and she-donkey = hinny
 The donkey's weight varies from 80 kg for a miniature donkey to 480 kg for a Poitou male.
  
Hauteur au garrot : de 0,80 m. à 1,60 m.
Its  ears are extremely mobile and measure half the length of the head.
  
It lives an average of 30 to 35 years. Exceptionally, it can live beyond 50.

 

The period of gestation of the she-donkey is between 12 and 13 months.
  

 

The tail is long and ends in a tuft of coarse hair.

 

A bit of history ...

Not much though ... We know so little about the arrival and territorial expansion of the ass.
At present it is thought that it was in the Pleistocene period (about a million years go) that the first equidae appeared. As evolution proceeded, three distinct species developed, the horse, the ass and the zebra, all deriving from the Equus of the Quaternary period. We find numerous traces of the existence of the ancestors of asinus in prehistoric times, but of course it was much later that asses were put to use.
Authors disagree as to whether the domestication of the ass took place earlier or later than that of the horse. Some authors, believing it was earlier, even speak of the use of the ass in the Late Stone Age. Up to now, no reliable scientific discovery has enabled these theories to be proved or disproved; it would be more exact to say that in early times the two species were put to use in different geographical areas. What is more certain is that the Nubian ass was domesticated in Lower Egypt more than 4000 years BC, and the North African ass rather later. The European races come from these two sub-species. It is thought that they were introduced by the Etruscans, who emigrated from Asia Minor to Italy. The Greeks and Romans acclimatized them in Southern European countries. In the XVIth century, the Spanish conquistadores introduced them in South America.

 

 

Morphology of the Donkey


* the average height at the withers varies from 0,80 m to 1,60 m;
* the weight varies according to the individual and the race, from 80 kg for a miniature donkey to 480 kg for a Poitou male;
* the out-stretched body length is from 0,9 m to 1,60 m; characterized by a fairly narrow breast, the body thickens to take on a more or less cylindrical form towards the rear;
* the back is slightly oblique from withers to loin, becoming more or less prominent, then flattening out with a slight downward curve. The spine, shorter than that of the horse, consists of very well-developed dorsal vertebrae, which is why the donkey has a strong and prominent back;
  

 

 

Jacky Davezé

* the tail is high-set and pendant, fairly long, with a tuft of coarse hair at the end;
* the head is long, the muzzle white, the end of the nose black and the eye almond-shaped;
* the voice: the donkey brays, the horse neighs;
* the ears are pointed, high set, wide at the base with the auricle facing forward; extremely mobile, they normally measure about half the length of the head;
* the limbs, like those of all equidae, are long, set well clear of the body and adapted for easy walking;
* the donkey's foot is more perpendicular than that of the horse.