Donkeys
Scientific identity

Understand the levels of identity.

This introduction follows Animal Diversity Web’s Equus asinus treatment. Its account discusses both domestic and wild populations; wild-ass conservation assessments must not be copied onto domestic donkey breeds.

Donkeys are herbivores with teeth adapted to grinding plant material. Their food choices can include grasses, herbaceous plants and browse, depending on availability. Like horses, they use hindgut fermentation, but their nutritional management should not simply copy that of a horse of similar size.

Merck's equid nutrition guidance explains the importance of high-fiber feeding and attention to energy intake for donkeys. Reducing excessive dietary energy is different from starving an animal: severe restriction can contribute to hyperlipemia. A teaching foundation should connect body condition, dental function and the animal's job to the way forage is supplied, without prescribing one ration for all donkeys.

A taxonomic hierarchy places an animal in biological groups. A domestic breed or strain sits within a broader species framework; it is not automatically a separate biological species. A breed’s conservation status and a wild species’ IUCN status answer different questions.

Domestic naming is not uniform across all references. One authority may use a domestic species name while another treats it within a wild ancestor. The linked GBIF record shows the naming authority and the treatment used here, checked October 4, 2026. For this world, each named breed also has its own cultural and breeding identity.

Natural History Museum: how taxonomy works · Animal Diversity Web: group biology