Carl Linnaeus, the great 18th century Swedish biologist, gave scientific names, based on his binomial system, to over 4,000 species of animals (and even more plants). He called the donkey Equus asinus, which is literally just ‘horse donkey’ in Latin. But in English, ‘asinine’, meaning donkey-like, has become a synonym for stupid, which seems very unfair to an animal that does no person or place any harm and, though stubborn, is not unintelligent. Linnaeus named us Homo sapiens, the ‘wise man’, which is also unfair – there is nothing wise about a species whose population is madly out of control, who pollutes its own air and water supplies, can barely function without a phone or a coffee in its hand, doesn’t know what to do with all the plastic it accumulates every day, and has created weapons which can, and possibly will, destroy most life on this planet. But then Linnaeus had no way of knowing how stupid mankind would become.
Donkeys, horses and zebras all belong to the same genus, Equus, the only living members of the horse family, Equidae, which in turn is part of the order Perissodactyla, the odd-toed ungulates; rhinoceroses and tapirs are also in this order. There were once many more species of horse-like creatures, and they left an extensive fossil record, mostly in North America. Horse evolution involved an increase in body size, change in dentition and a reduction in the number of toes. For example, Eohippus was about 30 centimetres tall at the shoulder, had four toes on its front feet and three on the back. It lived in forests about 50 million years ago, browsing on fruits and leaves. Around 15 million years ago, many woodland habitats gave way to grassy plains, and so a larger proto-horse, Merychippus, evolved for running – its central toe was the biggest, and its other two toes didn’t touch the ground; also, the crowns of its teeth became much longer, for chewing hard grasses. Equus, with its hoof and vestigial toes, first appeared about three million years ago. It migrated to Asia during the last Ice Age when, due to lower sea levels, there was a land bridge between what is now Alaska and Russia. It then became extinct in North America, probably because of early humans, who had travelled the other way.
The domesticated horse is descended from the Eurasian wild horse or tarpan, which once roamed from Russia to Spain, but which became extinct in the late 19th century. Przewalski’s horse was native to the steppes of central Asia, but by the 1960s, it too had disappeared from the wild. However, captive breeding programmes have been successful, and Przewalski’s horses have been re-introduced into Mongolia and western China, as well as Ukraine, where over a hundred of them now graze on (probably radioactive) grass in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. All other apparently wild horses are feral, for example brumbies in Australia and mustangs in America.
There are three zebra species. The plains zebra is the one you are most likely to see on a safari in East Africa, and is still relatively common. The taller Grevy’s zebra, which has thinner stripes and is found only in Ethiopia and parts of Kenya, and the mountain zebra of Namibia and parts of South Africa, are both endangered. The quagga, which was striped only on its front half, the rest of it being brown, was hunted to extinction by 1878.
Finally, there are three species of wild ass: the African, the Asiatic and the Tibetan. All are in danger of extinction. Only 600 African wild asses remain, in the deserts of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia; it is from this animal that our domestic donkey is derived.
Being so closely related, donkeys, horses and zebras can interbreed, though the offspring are not fertile. A mule is a cross between a male donkey and a female horse; a hinny is a cross between a male horse and a female donkey. The general term for a hybrid between a zebra and any other equine is zebroid.
When I first came to Ireland in 1970, donkeys pulling carts of milk churns to the creamery were still a common sight, and many were kept as pets. My sister had two, called Bess and Jenny. She and some friends used to give donkey rides on Courtmacsherry beach in the late 1970s. Bess was old, with a concave back, short legs and an especially lugubrious expression, but she managed to come third in the Donkey Derby at the Courtmacsherry Regatta in 1976. She gained further when, while being led to new pastures behind the village, she disappeared down a deep and long-forgotten well that was grown over with weeds. My poor sister ran down to the harbour where I was working, desperately seeking help. Friends and neighbours all joined in the rescue; the owner of the hotel actually climbed into the hole and got a sling, made of fishing net and rope, around the donkey. With a block and tackle from the lifeboat and a kindly farmer’s tractor, we managed to get Bess almost to the top. Then she slipped out of the sling, back to the bottom and, we assumed, certain death. But we tried again, and this time the donkey’s huge ears and mournful face eventually appeared above the hole, and with one final heave, she was standing on all fours, unscathed and unconcerned.
If well-looked-after, donkeys can live up to 40 years. Where they are overworked and mistreated, their life expectancy is a fraction of that – nine years in Ethiopia. Despite their holy associations (the cross on a donkey’s back is supposedly because Jesus rode one into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, if you believe that sort of thing), they often suffer great cruelty, usually because of ignorance. Donkeys have particular problems with their feet: their hooves do not wear down like other equids, and if not regularly pared (every six-10 weeks), they grow enormously, curling upwards until the foot is permanently damaged and the animal crippled.
I lived for a year in Khartoum, Sudan, teaching in what must have been the worst school in the world. Khartoum is a big modern city, but donkeys are still used as beast of burden, and have a pretty horrible existence. I saw them on building sites, pulling trailers overloaded with bricks, or transporting tanks of water. Every day, a donkey and cart came down our road with two or three ragged boys, collecting rubbish; the donkey was skeletal, the boys vicious.
Donkeys are eaten in many countries, even in Europe. Worldwide, perhaps 10 million donkeys are killed for their meat or skins. The Chinese have their own especially cruel ways with donkeys.
When I lived in Shandong Province, I was told by my students of a donkey restaurant where one points to the particular part of the donkey one wants to eat, and it is cut off the live animal. There are certainly videos available on the internet of donkeys in China being butchered beside the road for any passing donkey eater.
Recently, there has been a great demand for donkey hides. These are made into ejiao, a type of gelatin used by Chinese medical practitioners to treat, among other things, insomnia, dry coughs and bleeding, to improve one’s sex life, and to delay ageing. People pay up to $388 per kilogram for it (more stupidity). As a result, the population of donkeys in China has plummeted, so that greedy nation has turned to Africa for supplies. In Kenya, four government-licensed abattoirs have been slaughtering donkeys for export to China since 2018, but there is such demand for the poor animals that pet and working donkeys are stolen and killed (in the same way pet dogs and cats are stolen in China to supply dog and cat restaurants). Horrific for the donkeys, it is also disastrous for the owners, for whom the donkey might be essential for their work or transport.
The slaughtering of donkeys has now been outlawed in some African countries, but knowing how things work (or don’t) in Africa, and the increasing power and influence of merciless and mercenary China, I don’t know how effective such a ban will be. I have a friend in Kenya who has two rescued donkeys; they now have a luxurious life, but if I were her, I would worry about them.
Some donkeys are lucky, thanks to the Donkey Sanctuary. Set up in England in 1969, this well-deserving charity does great work in giving good homes to old, sick or mistreated donkeys, and has branches throughout Europe. It also has operations in India, Mexico and a few African countries, educating owners and offering free veterinary clinics. The Irish branch is based in Liscarroll, north Co. Cork. To find out more, go to www.donkeysanctuary.ie.