Cheers for the Long-Ears

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Mules are perfect for any farm. This mule is on alert near the barn. iStockPhoto.com/Robert Faubert

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Donkeys and mules are remarkably versatile and hardy: They work as farm and pack animals as well as saddle mounts, jumpers and draft animals. Treasured for their intelligence and gentleness, they are sensitive and generally love people. If a mule or donkey is ill-tempered, experts say, it’s a fair bet a human is to blame.

Comparisons to horses come naturally. After all, the animals are members of the Equidae family.

All domestic asses, or donkeys, are descendants of wild asses from Africa and Asia. The endangered Somali ass, though, is the only African wild ass still present in Africa. The donkey’s characteristic dark, cross-shaped dorsal-and-withers stripe derives from the Nubian wild ass (Equus africanus africanus), which is considered extinct. Ancient Egyptian art depicts this animal as that culture’s domesticated beast of burden.

Wild horses and asses were hunted for food and for sport before becoming domesticated. Asses may have become partners with the human race as early as 2,800 B.C., though scholars disagree whether domestication began first in western Asia or northern Africa. More significant is the fact that the ass’ natural habitat was hot, dry, hilly, rocky countryside – very different from the cool, broad steppes (grasslands) where the wild horse originated. These differences in habitat account for some of the behaviors we now attribute to donkeys and their hybrid cousins, mules.

Think of a mule or donkey and the stereotype that immediately comes to mind is stubborn. This perception has some basis in fact, but people who know these animals say they aren’t so much obstinate as cautious. Highly intelligent – their fans would argue that they’re smarter than horses – donkeys and mules are quick learners. Their legendary stubbornness is, in fact, a manifestation of their talent for self-preservation. They stop and think things through, then come to their own conclusions. It’s when those conclusions differ from what humans want them to do that we apply their infamous reputation.

Mules are naturally suspicious and are wary to do just any old thing for any old body. Gain their trust, however, and you might be surprised at how cooperative they can be.

Dr. Larry Buggia of the Annabessacook Veterinary Clinic in Monmouth, Maine, says the evolutionary paths of horses and donkeys help explain the differences between the two species. Because the horse evolved in broad, open plains, its natural defense mechanism when startled or frightened is to run and put distance between it and any predator. Donkeys evolved in situations less conducive to flight and so developed the ability to analyze and respond appropriately to individual situations. “They evolved with a little more brain power,” Buggia says.

This talent for thinking things through can be a great advantage: If a mule or donkey takes care of itself, it also is taking care of its cargo, human or otherwise. For decades, mules have been taking tourists down the narrow, winding paths into the Grand Canyon – a feat that should tell us something about mules’ surefootedness and intelligent caution.

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