Donkey, Donkey

The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E. africanus . Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has ruled in 2003 that if the domestic species and the wild species are considered subspecies of each other, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that subspecies has been described after the domestic subspecies.

The much rarer successful mating of a male horse and a female donkey produces a hinny.

Only about 1.7 percent of donkey pregnancies result in twins. Both twins survive in only about 14 percent of the cases.

Descendants of these donkeys, now feral, can still be seen roaming the Southwest today.thumb|left|Ass headcount in 2003 By the early 20th century, donkeys began to be used less as working animals and instead kept as pets in the United States and other wealthier nations, while remaining an important work animal in many poorer regions.

Robert Green imported miniature donkeys to the United States and was a lifetime advocate of the breed.

China has the most with 11 million, followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia and Mexico. Some researchers think the real number is higher since many donkeys go uncounted.

Other donkeys are used to sire mules, as companions for horses, to guard sheep, and as pets.

In the western United States the word "burro" is often used interchangeably with the word "donkey" by English speakers.

The secularists in this analogy are "The Donkey" while the religious who are fated to supplant them are a collective "Messiach". A book on the subject, published in 1998 by the militant secularist Sefi Rechlevsky, aroused a major controversy in the Israeli public opinion.

Source: Wikipedia > Donkey