Feral Burro
Ass

Equus asinus

Photo taken by Jim Blaugh in Arizona, USA. 2002

These horse relatives escaped domestication - from prospectors and early settlers - many years ago. After so many generations in the wild they are beginning to revert to their ancestral behaviors and biology. Many Sonoran Desert regions, particularly through northwestern Arizona, are severally impacted by an over abundance of these herbivores. There are no natural predators to keep the populations in check. Animal rights groups object to efforts to remove them from rangelands by any means that is harmful to the burros. Thirteen thousand years befor present there were horse-like animals in the now extinct megafauna of the American West, so there is some argument in favor of the burro filling that role now. But should we also bring back a top predator?

Equidae -- Horse Family

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More Information:

• Animal Diversity Web
• ITIS Taxonomic Report
• Google Images
• Google Scholar Literature Search
• Reference Book:  Mammals of Arizona (1986), D. F. Hoffmeister, Univ. of Arizona Press.