![Miniature and small standard donkeys](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Miniature_and_small_standard_donkeys.jpg)
North American donkeys constitute approximately 0.1% of the worldwide
donkey population. Donkeys were brought from Europe to the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
in the fifteenth century with the
Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus
Between 1492 and 1504, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus led four Spanish transatlantic maritime expeditions of discovery to the Americas. These voyages led to the widespread knowledge of the New World. This breakthrough inaugurated the pe ...
, and subsequently spread into Mexico. They first reached what is now the United States in the late seventeenth century. Donkeys arrived in large numbers in the western United States during the
gold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...
es of the nineteenth century, as
pack animal
A pack animal, also known as a sumpter animal or beast of burden, is an individual or type of working animal used by humans as means of transporting materials by attaching them so their weight bears on the animal's back, in contrast to draft ani ...
s and for use in mines and
ore-grinding mills. From about 1785, some large donkeys were imported from Europe to the eastern part of the continent.
There are no
true-breeding North American donkey breeds. Breed societies in Canada and the United States register donkeys according to their size, as miniature, standard or
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...
donkeys. These are reported as breeds to the
Domestic Animal Diversity database of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
by the
National Animal Germplasm Program
The National Animal Germplasm Program, or NAGP, is a program of the United States Department of Agriculture that captures and cryogenically preserves germplasm from plants and animals it considers important to agriculture for the purpose of prese ...
of the
Agricultural Research Service of the
US Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
, as are the Burro – a
feral
A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...
population of the western United States – and the Spotted, a
color breed
A color breed refers to groupings of horses whose registration is based primarily on their coat color, regardless of the horse's actual breed or breed type.
Some color breeds only register horses with a desired coat color if they also meet speci ...
.
History
The first asses came to the Americas on ships of the
second voyage of
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
, and were landed at
Hispaniola in 1495. In the early days of the Conquest, jackasses were highly valued as sires for
mules, which were esteemed as riding animals by the Spanish, and reserved for the nobility. Mules were bred for expeditions to mainland America, with males preferred for pack animals and the females for riding. The first shipment of mules, along with three jacks and twelve jennies, arrived in Mexico from Cuba ten years after the conquest of the
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
s in 1521. Mules were used in silver mines, and each Spanish outpost in the empire bred its own mules from its own jack.
The first presence of donkeys in what is now the United States is sometimes reported to date from 1679, when a
Jesuit priest named
Eusebio Kino
Eusebio Francisco Kino ( it, Eusebio Francesco Chini, es, Eusebio Francisco Kino; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was a Tyrolean Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer bor ...
took some from
Sonora in Spanish Mexico to a new mission at
San Xavier del Bac
Mission San Xavier del Bac ( es, La Misión de San Xavier del Bac) is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O'odham Nation San Xavier Indian Reservation. The mission was founded in ...
in what is now
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
; however, Kino did not reach the Americas before about 1681, and was not in Sonora until 1687. Donkeys arrived in large numbers in the western United States during the
gold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...
es of the nineteenth century, as
pack animal
A pack animal, also known as a sumpter animal or beast of burden, is an individual or type of working animal used by humans as means of transporting materials by attaching them so their weight bears on the animal's back, in contrast to draft ani ...
s and for use in mines and
ore-grinding mills. The major use of donkeys came to an end with the end of the mining boom and the introduction of railroads in the West. With little value, many animals were turned loose to become the populations of free-roaming
burro
The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...
s that inhabit the West today.
From about 1785, some large donkeys were imported from Europe to the eastern United States, and were used for the production of
mules. In 1888 the American Breeders Association of Jacks and Jennets started a
stud-book for these animals under the name
American Mammoth Jack
The American Mammoth Jackstock is a breed of North American donkey, descended from large donkeys imported to the United States from about 1785. George Washington, with Henry Clay and others, bred for an ass that could be used to produce strong ...
. In 1923 it merged with the Standard Jack and Jennet Registry of America, which had been set up in 1908; in 1988 the name was changed to American Mammoth Jackstock Registry. Breeds that may have influenced the mammoth include the
Maltese, the
Baudet du Poitou, the
Andalusian, the
Majorcan
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Balea ...
and the
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
.
In the twentieth century, donkeys came to be more frequently kept as pets in the United States and in other wealthy nations. In 1929 Robert Green of
New York imported seven donkeys of the small indigenous
Sardinian breed to the United States. The first foal was born in the same year. Although never considered miniature in their country of origin, these animals were soon known as Miniature or Miniature Mediterranean donkeys. Green was a lifelong advocate, and said of them: "Miniature donkeys possess the affectionate nature of a Newfoundland, the resignation of a cow, the durability of a
mule, the courage of a tiger, and an intellectual capability only slightly inferior to man's." By 1935 there were 52 of them, and some were sold. Further Sardinian donkeys were imported, as well as similar but quite distinct
Sicilian animals. A
register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
of miniature donkeys was started in 1958 by Bea Langfeld, who was the first professional breeder of miniature donkeys in the United States; in 1987 it was merged into that of the American Donkey and Mule Society, which was formed in 1967.
Both the Canadian Donkey and Mule Association and the American Donkey and Mule Society register donkeys according to their size, as miniature, standard or mammoth donkeys. These are reported as breeds to the
Domestic Animal Diversity database of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
by the
National Animal Germplasm Program
The National Animal Germplasm Program, or NAGP, is a program of the United States Department of Agriculture that captures and cryogenically preserves germplasm from plants and animals it considers important to agriculture for the purpose of prese ...
of the
Agricultural Research Service of the
US Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
, as are the
feral
A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...
Burro population of the western United States and the Spotted, a
color breed
A color breed refers to groupings of horses whose registration is based primarily on their coat color, regardless of the horse's actual breed or breed type.
Some color breeds only register horses with a desired coat color if they also meet speci ...
.
Characteristics
Both the Canadian Donkey and Mule Association and the American Donkey and Mule Society register donkeys according to their size, as miniature, standard or mammoth donkeys.
Adult miniature donkeys stand or less at the
withers
The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, it is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, cattle a ...
.
Small standard donkeys stand from over and large standard donkeys stand from over to for jennies, or for jacks and geldings.
Mammoth jennies are taller than , and mammoth jacks and geldings over .
Any donkey with at least two spots behind the
throatlatch and above the legs can be registered with the American Council of Spotted Asses under the trademarked name American Spotted Ass.
Notes
References
{{reflist, 45em, refs=
[Spotted Ass Registration Information]
American Council of Spotted Asses, 2009. Accessed March 2012.
The American Donkey and Mule Society. Archived 14 August 2011.
[The Donkey]
Government of Alberta: Agriculture and Rural Development, 1990. Archived 15 August 2011.
American Mammoth Jackstock Registry. Archived 5 October 2011.
[Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016)]
''Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding''
(sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. {{ISBN, 9781780647944.
Canadian Donkey and Mule Association. Archived 16 January 2012.
[United States of America, Ass]
Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed June 2019.
[Dent, Anthony (1972) ''Donkey: The Story of the Ass from East to West'' London: Harrap {{ISBN, 9780245599323 "There is no breed of ass that can be regarded as a specific and original American development", cited a]
The Donkey
Government of Alberta: Agriculture and Rural Development, 1990. Archived 15 August 2011.
[The History of The Miniature Mediterranean Donkey]
The Donkey & Mule Society of New Zealand. Accessed August 2011.
[Joan F. Guilfoyle, Albert J. Kane, Gus Warr, Fran Ackley (2014)]
Managing and Training Mustangs in the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program
''Proceedings of the 60th Annual Convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, December 6-10, 2014'' (2014): 410-423.
[Anthony Kilgore (1858)]
'An Essay on the Ass and Mule'
in ''Working Farmer'' IX: 284.
[Waltraud Kugler, Hans-Peter Grunenfelder, Elli Broxham (2008)]
Donkey Breeds in Europe: Inventory, Description, Need for Action, Conservation; Report 2007/2008
St. Gallen, Switzerland: Monitoring Institute for Rare Breeds and Seeds in Europe. Archived 2 September 2009.
[Sandra L. Olsen (editor) (1996). ''Horses Through Time''. Boulder, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers for Carnegie Museum of Natural History. {{ISBN, 9781570980602; cited a]
Donkey
Lexington, Kentucky: The International Museum of the Horse. Archived 12 August 2011.
[Clive Roots (2007)]
''Domestication''
Westport: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN, 9780313339875.
[ Salmon, Thomas (
Mammals of North America">744-1746) ''Modern History: or, The Present State of all Nations'', 3rd edition, Volume 3.'' London: T. Longman.]
Mammals of North America
Donkey breeds
Donkey breeds originating in the United States