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by Scottie Westfall

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The ancestry of the domestic donkey is no longer a “wild ass” guess

July 30, 2010 by SWestfall3

Analyses  of African wild ass MtDNA have confirmed the identity of one of the ancestors of the domestic donkey.

It turns out that the very rare and possibly extinct Nubian wild ass is the ancestor of one the two genetically distinct groups of domestic donkey.

The ancestor of the other genetically distinct group is unknown, but it has been confirmed that the mostly solitary Somali wild ass is the ancestor of neither of these two groups. The exact identity of this other group is still up for  speculation, including some “wild ass” guesses.  (If you don’t like these jokes, then you probably think I’m an ass after reading this post.)

These studies confirm that the first domestication of the donkey occurred somewhere in North Africa around 5,000 years ago.  This finding is pretty interesting, because no other large African mammal has been domesticated.

What’s more is that the researchers found that domestication was an ongoing process. The Nubian wild ass was domesticated several times, and there was always a gene flow between the wild and domestic populations.  This finding is not entirely different from what we’ve found out about dog and wolf populations.

Now, the identity of the other ancestor of the domestic donkey is still a mystery. This is not actually all that unusual. We still do not know which population of wild mouflon is the ancestor of the domestic sheep and the feral European mouflon. In fact, it has only been recently that the European mouflon has been recognized as a feral sheep and is not part of Europe’s native fauna. The exact ancestral wild sheep is probably extinct.

And in this way, donkeys and sheep share a history. The Nubian wild ass is often thought of as extinct in the wild. No one has seen one since late the 1990’s.

But because it went extinct only recently, we can make comparisons using DNA extracted from recently deceased specimens.

It is certainly interesting that the MtDNA studies found this relationship. I am very curious about the identity of the non-Nubian wild ass-derived donkeys. I have not seen the study, and I am wondering whether Asian wild asses might be that ancestor.

I honestly don’t know whether onagers and kiangs can hybridize with domestic donkeys or whether these hybrids are fertile. I also don’t know whether all the different species of ass were included in that study or if all the different subspecies of African wild ass were included. I have not seen the study, but if one of my very well-connected readers could find it and send it to me, it would be very nice.

Of course, one must be careful with reading too much into MtDNA studies. MtDNA may be least prone to mutation, and it is very useful in tracing matrilinear inheritance.  However, it is only one part of the genome, and there are no genome-wide analyses of the donkey. MtDNA is but one part of the genome. It’s useful for its purpose, but one must be careful in reading too much into it.

Remember, the MtDNA studies in domestic dogs strongly suggested that they were derived from East Asian wolves, specifically a South Chinese population. The genome-wide studies found that this simply was not the case.  Using SNP-chip technology, it was found that Middle Eastern wolves were much more similar to domestic dogs than an East Asian population of Canis lupus.

So these are interesting findings, but we need to be cautious about accepting this finding as the final proof.

Still, it shows how important donkeys were in the founding of civilization. We Americans like to think our civilization was built on the back of a horse. It is true. However, world civilization has mostly been built on the back of the donkey.

Where I live donkeys are kept for one purpose: livestock guardians.

One can drive down any rural road in West Virginia and come across small herds of beef cattle. Usually standing in the midst of those cows is a donkey. The donkey’s job is to keep the coyotes and stray dogs out of the pasture– a job they would take seriously even if there were no cows there.

As a general rule, donkeys hate anything that looks like a dog.

The next time I see one of these guard donkeys, I’m going to think of their wild North African ancestors– one extinct and the other unknown. I’m going to think of the ancient civilizations that relied upon these animals to build their marvels and to grow the grain that fed their populations.

I’m going to salute the donkey. I’m going to look at it with wonder.

We would probably be nothing without them.

And now that we no longer need them in my part of the world, it is good to know that they are being put to some use. Guarding livestock from canine predators is really not that hard compared to being a beast of burden, as they are in so many parts of the world.

Compared to their counterparts in poorer countries, most American donkeys have it good.

And that’s no wild ass speculation.

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Posted in Absolute Piffle, domestic animals | Tagged African wild ass, ass, donkey, kiang, Nubian wild ass, onager, Somali wild ass | 15 Comments

15 Responses

  1. on July 30, 2010 at 7:21 pm retrieverman

    If you don’t like this post or the jokes in it, you can kiss my ass.


  2. on July 30, 2010 at 8:31 pm Kenneth

    If you want to see The Nubian wild ass (NWA)The San Diego Zoo has a breeding population of them. So While they are likely to be extinct in the wild they still hang on in maintenance breeding herds in several Zoo across the planet. I have seen them myself and they are a very handsome breed.

    I see an scenario for the NWA which will be something like the Przewalski’s Horse which did go extinct in the wild in 1966 and they have been reintroduced to their native habitat in Mongolia. Once The Sudan settles down maybe the NWA can returned to their home as well.


    • on July 30, 2010 at 9:37 pm retrieverman

      Yes.

      I know they do exist in very limited numbers in captivity, and there is a way of saving them.

      I doubt that Sudan will settle down any time soon.


    • on June 3, 2011 at 9:41 am Joshua

      So, the Nubian Wild Ass has been considered extinct since 1960ish. The ones that San Diego has are hybrid E. asinus. Or at least that’s how they have them listed with ISIS.org. Two facilities say that they have “NWA’s”, but I haven’t verified that they truly do.


      • on June 3, 2011 at 3:10 pm retrieverman

        Thank you so much for this info!


  3. on July 31, 2010 at 11:01 am M.R.S.

    There was an interesting bit on TV this morning about an (accidental) crossbreeding between a zebra stallion and a donkey mare. The foal looked much like a donkey foal, but had zebra stripes on the legs.

    No doubt some enterprising soul will start cross-breeding deliberately now…


  4. on July 31, 2010 at 12:48 pm Lane Batot

    I got to work with several zebra X donkey crosses at another zoo years ago–they seemed to take after the donkeys in temperment, and were very tractable. All of the ones we had were also mostly grey with prominent leg stripes, but also had a few sripes on the withers, where donkeys commonly just have the one stripe. Apparently most zebras and donkeys are closer related than most zebras and horses(although they can crossbreed as well), except for the Grevy’s Zebra(the guys with the very narrow stripes), which supposedly are closer to horses. The zebra stallion at this zoo(a Burchell’s) had grown up with donkeys, and had no interest in zebra mares–he would persecute them and try to kill them, in fact!(We eventually gave up trying to keep other zebras with him–he would not tolerate them!) But he loved his donkey girls! And I can verify that there is one anatomical part of a zebra that is not striped!(It’s black, for you curious trivia collectors out there…) I really loved all the donkeys–treated with kindness, they are extremely gentle and affectionate animals. I became quite the “ass-kisser” at that zoo! At the zoo I now work at, the only asses are bipedal, and their temperments are not so good…….


  5. on July 31, 2010 at 12:56 pm Lane Batot

    …..and before anyone gets misconstrued, I will emphasise here that my “love” for donkeys, unlike that zebra stallion, is purely platonic……


  6. on July 31, 2010 at 4:12 pm Peggy Richter

    In “Origin of Species” (1859) Charles Darwin mentions a cross beteen Equus indicus [onager] a hybrid, and a male domestic ass. I found a powerpoint reference via google on a cross between donkey & onager, but couldn’t get teh file to open
    [PPT] Horses and asses – PowerPoint Presentation
    File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint – View as HTML
    Donkey x onager hybrid bred in Tierpark Berlin. Like mules, hinnies, horse x onager hybrids and hybrids with zebras, they are almost always sterile. …
    The book Equine reproduction By A. O. McKinnon, James L. Voss discusses onager crosses.

    an article in Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
    Volume 5, Issue 2, 1985, Pages 87-90 A fertile female mule by William E. Jones DVM, PhD and David W. Johnsen DVM apparently also discusses a cross with a kiang –“Oct 6, 2007 … Hybrid crosses have been obtained among most of the equine species. … pony mare produced a hybrid from a Kiang.” but the article is not free so I didn’t download it.

    Regarding MTDNA, interesting thing. A friend is rresearching performance Belgian Sheepdogs. She could find only one kennel where the female line going back to Petite was intact — yet Petite is one of the primary foundation dogs. Most of the dogs went to 1944 and then there was a male “break” in the line. So it’s entirely possible that the MTDNA of Petite (were it known) would not show as being “Belgian Sheepdog”. Yet pedigrees showing direct decent male/female are well known. So relying on MTDNA to prove/disprove decent is not a certainty. All it says is that there’s no known direct, intact female line.

    Peggy Richter


  7. on August 6, 2010 at 9:11 am Russell Constable

    Looks like that Egyptian bloke in the picture is dishin out a real “ass whippin”!
    Hey you started it with the “ass kissin”!


  8. on August 20, 2010 at 12:54 am Peter

    From what I have read, the Asiatic wild asses have a differant number of chromsomes from the domestic donkey and the African wild asses and therefore only produce sterile hybrids when crossed with domestic donkeys.


    • on August 20, 2010 at 8:00 am retrieverman

      Well, I do know that Przewalski’s horse has a different number of chromosomes than the domestic horse, but they can interbreed and all of their offspring are fertile.

      They break Haldane’s rule.


    • on August 20, 2010 at 8:05 am retrieverman

      http://books.google.com/books?id=saySBl8hC_4C&lpg=PA2052&ots=47e8SoHsIn&dq=hybridization%20domestic%20horse%20przewalski's%20horse&pg=PA2052#v=onepage&q=hybridization%20domestic%20horse%20przewalski's%20horse&f=false

      Different chromosome number doesn’t always mean infertility in hybrids.

      Dholes, black-backed jackals, side-striped jackals, and African wild dogs have the same number of chromosomes as wolves (including dogs and dingoes), golden jackals, coyotes, and Ethiopian wolves.

      Dholes, black-backed and side striped jackals, and African wild dogs cannot interbred with that clade in the genus Canis.

      Within that clade, however, there is a high level of interfertility. However, repeated crossings of coyote/wolf and golden jackal/wolf hybrids tend to lose fertility and not all hybrids are fertile.


  9. on October 12, 2010 at 3:14 am Jimmy Choo

    Jimmy Choo display the newest the style,I bought one pair Jimmy Choo Shoes online store,it is so beautiful with best price.Jimmy Choos are promotion in this season,come on now.


  10. on May 30, 2011 at 3:31 pm Deb Kidwell

    Hey Y’all, the hybrid that comes onager (E. hemionus) x donkey (E. Asinus) is called a “Kunga”. These were bred until about 2,500 BC when horses became more widespread and the superior hybrid mule caused the cessation of making the Kunga. I don’t want to bore others here, but if you want to e-mail me I can share data:-) As we say on my farm, “If it ain’t half ass, it’s just a horse!”
    Deb and the longears of Lake Nowhere Mule and Donkey Farm



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