7 Things About Donkeys

7 Things About Donkeys

Guardians

Donkeys have traditionally got trained to protect livestock bonded with personally, such as sheep, goats and cattle they are housed with, from predator threats.

They are commonly in the form of wild canines, including coyotes, foxes, hyenas and wolves - which lots of donkeys have an innate discrimination against. Donkeys utilise their daunting size, clamping bites with robust teeth and jumping kicks to injure and fend/drag them off, not necessarily killing.

The largest donkeys can naturally draw over 100 livestock towards or behind them like a bodyguard, which calms them a bit. Females are the better protectors, while males are more territory-defensive and aggressive against predators, where they will likely win any 1v1s.

Deserts

Donkeys have adapted anatomically and physiologically to hot climate/desert regions. Herds aren't as compact regarding food scarcity, so they have evolved elongated ear auricles to direct and reach communicative soundwaves from conspecifics; or predator sounds at long-distance - allegedly from 60 miles away sometimes.

They function further for heat expulsion due to their high length:volume ratio. Donkeys actually have the lowest water requirement of any domestic mammal other than camels - since they are able to extract moisture more successfully from food.

Similarly, they possess efficient absorption for what they consume - again because of desert scarcity. ~95% of nutrients from grass, plants and even poor-quality foliage/roughage get uptaken for nourishment, which explains why the faecal remainders are more fibrous than nutrient-rich and aren't great fertilisers. Consequently, donkeys require substantially less food quantity than a horse or pony the same size, being easy to overfeed if unaware or complacent.

Unguligrades/Ungulates

Ungulates are hooved animals, being essentially one toe pointing into the ground. They are usually some of the fastest yet least stable. Although, at the expense of flexibility, they have a fused ulna and radius in the lower forelimbs for galloping support, jumping exertion and landing impact resistance.

Donkey hooves are like the other equids, except being more upright with even less surface area, possibly to get through sand effectively since they evolved with the ground being less flat and sturdy. It is also convenient for them to dig for water, helping humans and other animals.

Because the hooves have become smaller and compact, they pack a more condensed force considering kicks, being a lot stronger than horses relative to mass.

Sociality and Intelligence

Donkeys are exceptionally more intelligent than horses/ponies, demonstrated through a more diverse ethology (behavioural range), consisting of notable sociality, which seems to encourage cognition and epiphany.

They have predominantly lived in herds with worthwhile and lifelong intraspecific bonds. Yet, their complexity insinuates they can coexist in lower numbers within captivity, where pair bonds are sufficient. If separated, they can exude blaring 'eee oor' vocalisations (reminiscent of long-distance calls in deserts) called 'brays'.

Brays most frequently relate with food time in captivity, whereas considering separation in particular, the noise links to emotions of loneliness, loss and depression - which ensues into anorexia/pining, suggestive of its importance for their wellbeing as a sentient species. In addition, brays have slight differences between individuals, respecting durations, quantity, pause interval length, alongside pitch level and its fluctuation.

Donkeys have great short and long-term memory too. They have required less time during perseveration spatial cognition tests than horses and dogs, perhaps due to their extensive working history. Furthermore, they can supposedly remember other donkeys and people they were with over one or two decades ago (average UK lifespan is ~30 years, though potentially reaching 40/50+).

Animal-Assisted Therapy

Resting faces often make them look pensive; nonetheless, a lot are really tranquil and benevolent with proper care from a young age. As prey, they become more vivacious in peaceful places with less social intimidation. Ones who previously suffered due to humans are inclined to avoidance, with a preconceived bias against humans. They will need time, understanding, empathy, meaningful companionships and patience.

Still, despite having less benefit for travel on behalf of mechanisation, the species are irreplaceable for recreation and therapeutic engagement to aid people's mental health - plus affectional and cognitive development in child rehabilitation.

Their intricate bonding, sentimentality, personality and preferences; aim to indirectly instil comprehension of individual attunement through tangible actions and inferential body language, not words. The notion can then get extrapolated to human interactions.

'Stubbornness'

A donkey's apparent 'stubbornness' stems from their prioritisation of self-preservation, responding to an ordeal in the wild. When processing a threat or hazard, they are much less erratic than horses and have a diminished 'flight' response.

Donkeys are prone to freeze and stand their ground with meticulous vigilance and inquisitive observation (which contradictorily makes them seem not very curious to people). This behaviour is versatile in order to process their eventual reactions, which correspond to environmental circumstances. It gets amplified further with the strength in numbers principle, 'selfish herding' for deterrence, granting more time for judgement.

Maybe because horses are faster with larger stature, they can afford to flee more; however, donkeys have become less receptive to stimuli but more safety-conscious independent thinkers concerning safety, fear or pain to survive. It's understandable how feral populations can be so prominent, except invasively destroying habitats because one can consume almost 3 tonnes of food a year.

The concept extends to working donkeys, which are fortitudinous and have high ethic. If they seem 'stubborn', the refused task has probably been deemed unsafe or impossible, even though they can carry over 50kg on their back and pull twice their weight over long distances.

Actual stubbornness may plausibly derive from lethargy via depression due to sub-optimal or distressing captive conditions, illness or injury. Accounting for their adeptness at concealing pain, even the slightest appearance or behavioural deviation could indicate a severe condition.

Laminitis

Most frequently caused by overfeeding, yet also hormonal or stress-driven, laminitis is the inflammation of the soft 'laminae' tissue connecting the pedal bone to the hoof wall, where the bone loses structural support. For example, surplus nutrient-rich grass, grains or cereal feed will produce a lot of heat waste energy after hind-gut fermentation.

If enough heat travels to and resides in the hooves, an intensive pressure increase gets induced (not helped by the hooves already having less coverage than the other equids). The bone may move down, rotate or even shoot through the bottom of the hoof, invoking excruciation and crippling lameness. The other hooves are then afflicted as the weight gets distributed off the damaged one.

The overwhelming distress can lead to immunosuppression for diseases like sepsis or colitis, which deteriorates health further until death. It cannot get fully repaired despite proper management; therefore, prevention is always preferable.