Somewhere in the deserts and semi-deserts of north-eastern Africa, a few millennia ago, humans and donkeys formed a relationship. Through domestication, the wild ass Equus africanus became the domestic donkey Equus asinus, which in many places still carries loads over great distances. People bred these donkeys around 7,200 years ago in the arid mountains of what are now Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. A team led by Ludovic Orlando from the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse concluded this in the journal “Science” from genetic analyzes of present and past donkeys.
Little is known about the African wild ass. They subsisted on the sparse grasses and herbs that grew in the mountains. The scientists examined the genome of 49 donkeys from regions from which there were previously hardly any DNA analyses. In addition, there were 158 already known genome sequences and DNA studies of 31 long-dead donkeys, some of which had lived in earlier millennia.
Elaborate analyzes and modeling finally delivered the result that the first donkeys were bred 7186 years ago. However, deviations are possible, the domestication could also have happened 742 years earlier or later.
From north-east Africa, donkeys first spread among pastoral peoples in the deserts and semi-deserts of the high altitudes of various regions of Africa. Rather unsuitable for rides in contrast to horses, they transported heavy loads at a leisurely pace. According to these calculations, the animals came to Europe around 4800 years ago and reached Asia 4600 years ago. Later, some lines of donkeys from Europe and the Middle East migrated to West Africa.
However, the picture remains quite blurred due to the still poor data situation in donkey research. The earliest animal whose genome was included in the study died around 3000 years after the calculated first breeding of donkeys. New data could therefore not only sharpen this picture, but also change it significantly. Since the homeland of the donkeys from Sudan to Ethiopia to Somalia is one of the most restless and therefore also most inaccessible regions in the world, the chances of such data are currently very low.
The analysis of the genome of a donkey that lived in the Middle East around 2,200 years ago, which was incorporated into the study, also gives food for thought. In addition to the well-known lineage of domestic donkeys, there is also a completely unknown lineage in this animal, which certainly leaves room for speculation: the donkeys could not only have originated in north-east Africa.
“There are also clear indications of the ancient cultural landscape of Mesopotamia on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers as a possible cradle of today’s donkeys,” says Eva-Maria Geigl, who also researches the history of donkeys at the University of Paris, at the “Science” study was not involved. In the so-called “Fertile Crescent” the domestication of sheep, goats and cattle began, however, already about 13,000 years ago.
The picture of the role played by the donkey then and now is much clearer than the history of its development. The animals come from mountainous regions where one misstep can easily mean death. Unlike horses and the Asian donkeys, which are more at home on flat ground and could move quickly, wild donkeys and domestic donkeys prefer to be careful. Because shallow puddles would evaporate quickly in their dry homeland, they only know water in its deep and potentially dangerous form. In this country, too, donkeys will look at such puddles suspiciously and circumnavigate them carefully.
This behavior, which is stubborn in the eyes of humans, makes donkeys extremely unsuitable for a brisk ride or unconditional obedience, so they are ruled out as mounts for the military. Their strengths lie more in transporting heavy loads at a leisurely pace. And for this purpose, donkeys have been used for thousands of years in many, preferably rather dry regions of the world.
