By more modern times (1400s) the Donkey had reached the New World – Christopher Columbus brought four males and two females, who then begot the mules used by Spanish conquistadors in their conquests.  The donkey, however, did not become popular until the gold rush if the 1840’s and then the mining into mountains.  Once this happened, donkeys became the primary locomotion inside mines and hauled gold around for prospectors – along with their equipment.  Often times they did not need ropes because they were loyal to humans, having been domesticated nearly six thousand years earlier.  In the 20th century they became pets in the U.S. while still maintaining their work status in much of the world that was not yet industrialized – and in the U.S. miniature donkeys were bred and brought in the 1920s, cementing their status as a pet, and more recently a guard animal.   Due to human domestication and interaction there are 44 million donkeys today all over the world, with China holding 11 million, followed by Ethiopia and Mexico.

The American Mammoth Donkey was first bred from Poitou, Maltese, Catalonian and Andalusia breeds and developed in the United States of America . Conceived and crossed breed primarily for producing donkeys for heavy work and long riding. The male donkey is known as jack, and Mammoth jacks should stand at least 58 inches (147 centimeters) high, while female mammoth donkeys are called jennies or jennets and measures at 56 inches upwards. Today this type of donkey is still rare as classified by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, only with less than a thousand new registrations annually.

• Poitou Donkey

Poitou Donkeys is a rare breed that has a dark brown hairy fur, a strong build, and long ears. The exact origins of the Poitou donkey are not generally known. It’s the largest type of all donkeys, and measures about 59 inches at the highest point on its back and sometimes more. It has an irregular and long matted bay-brown fur, without dorsal stripes. Its shaggy appearance is considered normal. Their weight varies in between about 350 to 450 kg.

With its unbalanced temperament and its lacking of grace in posture, this donkey is hardly ever used for work. Its value lies solely in its role as a sire for mules. The numbers of these donkeys, both male and female, have fallen very low.

• Standard Donkey

Most donkeys all over the world are under this size range. Often called burros, they stand between 36.01″ and 48″ at the withers and are further divided into three categories:

1. Small Standard—36.01 inches to 40 inches
2. Standard—40.01inches to 48 inches
3. Large Standard—48.01 inches to 54 inches (females) and 48.01 inches to 56 inches (males)

• Cypriot Donkey

Also known as the “Mercedes of Donkeys”; its distinguishably characterized by its exemplary long ears and a very friendly personality trait. Due to its almost professional and highly developed work trait and energetic health this Cypriot donkey are highly regarded and valued in different places like in Ottoman Syria and Palestine . It is not clear when the Cypriot donkey exactly emerged as a different and separate breed. It is clear, however, that it is markedly different from the common and more ordinary donkey of the Levant .

• American Spotted Ass

A special breed that was in America. While all asses can come in the spotted pattern (”pinto”), the term American Spotted Ass is a trade name for donkeys registered with ACOSA or the American Council of Spotted Asses, which is trying to establish foundation stock for spotted asses.

• Other Hybrids of a Donkey

Mule – a product of a cross breed between a male donkey (jack) and a female horse.
Hinny – a product of a cross breed between a female donkey (jenny) and a male horse.
Zonkey, Zebroid, Zebrass, or Zedonk – are names used to describe donkeys that were a product from the offspring of a Zebra-Donkey cross breeding.

Donkeys are different from horses mainly in its physical appearance. Donkey’s ears are very much noticeably larger than that of a horse in terms of proportion to its over all size. Donkeys have a much straighter neck, its crump and romp sizes differs from the horse, lacking in withers make up a straighter back of the donkeys and the tail and mane of donkeys are coarse leaving the tail to be covered with short body hair for its entirety.

Donkeys need shelter during times when rains pour heavily because as another difference with horses, donkey’s fur does not have waterproof capability.

Unlike Horses who adapts in a close knit herd and stables type of living condition, Donkeys are very much at ease in occupying and living in wide open marginal desert lands where there are almost a scarcity of food sources. For this reasons Donkeys have developed a distinguished loud voices that produces raspy and brassy sounds that can be heard for at least three kilometers away. This ability allows them to interact and communicate with one another.

Donkeys digestive system is something that stands out, it can easily break down the most inedible vegetation food and at the same time save and extract as many moisture as possible.

When push comes to shove in the wild, Donkey are also capable of defending themselves properly by using their hind legs for a forceful kick.

Most domestic Donkey stands between 35 to 55 inches tall. Unlike horses Donkeys needs a much smaller amount of food, they are prone to a disease called laminitis if they are overfed.

Domestic Donkeys are also classified by their sizes rather than their breed as a result of cross generational breeding there weren’t enough pure breeds left.

The size categories are:

• Miniature – 35 inches (91 cm)
• Small Standard – 39 inches (101 cm)
• Standard – 48 inches (122 cm)
• Large Standard – 55 inches (142 cm)
• Mammoth Jacks – Over 55 inches (over 142 cm)

Most Donkeys have a mouse gray color but there are donkeys that have different colors like black, white, all shades of gray, brown and even albino white. There are also donkeys that were known as “strawberry roan” because of their pink color (a mixture of grey dun and light red).
The average lifespan of Donkeys ranges from 25 years to its considered elderly age of 40 years. Some lucky Donkeys have been recorded to live through the ripe old age of 60.
Facts regarding the difference between Donkeys and Horses:

• Donkeys have a much higher form of intelligence; they are patient and make up for better pack animals, but they are much less powerful and slower than Horses.
• Donkeys are more properly adaptable to desert marginal lands as compared to Horses which thrives in lush grass field regions.
• During times of panic and danger, Donkeys will simply stay put in one place as compared to Horses whose tendency is to run away.
• Donkeys are considered to be more laid back than Horses.

Donkeys are a wonderful animal although very much different from Horses, donkeys can also have their fair share of uses like protecting fellow herd animals such as sheep and cattle goats from predators, a reliable stable companion of horses and even be used as a ride for the disabled people because Donkeys are considered kind, patient and affectionate animal.

The burros, which are also known as Equus Asinus, were brought to America by Spanish explorer in the early 16th Century. As previously mentioned, miners made use of these animals as animals of burden. This is because burros or donkeys have very strong backs, for their size compared to their much larger relatives. The burros in the present day are taken care of in National Parks where they are offered for adoption as pets. The ones that still roam freely in the wild are rounded up the Bureau of Land Management in helicopters and transported to reserves. The reason behind this is because wild burros destroy ecosystems. They contaminate water sources with their feces and urine and destroy vegetation by overgrazing, affecting other wild life. They also drink way too much water. An adult burro drinks approximately 22 liters(5 gallons) of water a day, as compared to native sheep which drink 3.8 liters(1 gallon) a day.

Burros, however, are better than horses when domesticated. It is believed that they are smarter, more aware, and well capable of fighting off predators. The problem with these animals is that they seem very sluggish and lazy, but they are quiet and capable of very hard work. They’re just harder to motivate.

The feral burros in the United States are the descendants of two breeds of burros which originally came from Africa: the Somalian and the Nubian. The Somalian breed is characterized by stripes on their front and rear legs like that of a zebra. The Nubian breed is known for black stripes along its shoulder and along its back, forming a cross. Because the feral burros are a mix of the two, the burros that now exist in the United States exhibit random properties of the two breeds.

The average adult burro is only half the size of a full-grown horse. They weigh at around 400 lbs, with the females called jennies weighing slightly lower. The males are called jacks. They eat grass just like their bigger relatives, but are more capable of withstanding high temperatures and even long periods without green forage. They do this by hiding in the shade and doing their activities in early morning and late afternoon. Their instinct and natural adaption is probably caused by the fact that they were originally released in the dessert, and so they learned to survive. Burros are capable of fighting off predators, which also probably comes from the same survival instinct. But doing so is no easy task, as the burros’ natural predators are mountain lions and coyotes, however with the low population of these predators, the population of the burros just continues to grow.

During the time of Christopher Columbus voyage to the Americas , Donkeys were used as one of the main transport of the Conquistadores as they traveled and explored America .

During the mining boom of the 1800’s Donkeys were used to transport mining tools to different mining sites across America . This practice was done until the introduction of the railroad system.

Modern day usages of the Donkeys are now better scoped. It is used as rides especially for children in different theme and outdoor parks around the world. For this reason Donkeys are now considered and used more as pets as they develop a friendly and companionable trait that can easily be dependable with human interactions.

Although most of the estimated 44 million Donkeys currently living in the world today are still being used for the same way they have been used in the past 4,000 years.

Donkeys are still highly dependable for transport, pack transport and pulling carts. They can be very helpful in farming chores like land tillage, milling, and raising water and even as protector of other herd animals from wild vultures such as coyotes.

Donkeys are also used in some Army errands like in the Italian Army which used them to carry and transport army gears.

All along its rich history, Donkeys have proven that they were helpful animal and very dependable ones, one that is good at almost everything from transport animals, farm tillage and even household pets.

The findings suggested that the first two populations of the Nubian African wild ass were first raised by people 4000 B.C. During this domestication period these ancestors of the modern donkeys were scattered as they travel with people to different parts of the world.

Donkeys are considered to be an important pack animal for the inhabitants of the Nubian and Egyptian regions as they are mobile and very agile animals, they can also be used for dairy and farming duties.

Donkeys played a great role in establishing long distance trade routes across the Egyptian deserts. Even before the construction of the Great Pyramids, packs of Donkeys blazed a trail from Wadi Hammamat from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea to trade with Arabia .

As proven in the discovery of such archeological finds like the tomb of Dynasty IV (ca. 2675-2565 BC). Very powerful and rich people possessed droves of over a thousand donkeys.

As donkeys continue to spread out of the Nile Valley in Egypt , it reaches unto different habitable parts of the world. Soon donkeys are threading their path in Southwest Asia by the end of the 4000 B.C. Mesopotamia soon became the center of Wild Ass breeding by the time 1800 B.C. started.

Damascus, the city whose cuneiform writing discovered among its archeological finds suggests the great role of donkeys in its caravan trade became well known for its breeding of the large white riding ass.

Soon afterwards different breeds were developed. Among them are the Muscat asses in Arabia and another form of saddled breed in Syria .

By 2000 B.C. Donkeys were brought to the continent of Europe to be used in its sprawling industry called “viticulture”, which refers to its process of cultivating grapes with the purpose of manufacturing wines.

Donkeys were scattered along vast Greek colonies spanning France , Italy and Spain . Afterwards the Romans took the donkeys to every part of their large empire.

Donkeys first appeared in the “New World”, a term that refers to land of the Americas , when Christopher Columbus brought four males and two female donkeys which later on gave birth to the mules that the famed Conquistadores rode as they explored the rest of the Americas .

When America won their independence, President George Washington spearheaded the importation of the first jack mammoth breed of Donkeys from Spain and France . Most of the donkeys stand over 16 hands or 64 inches tall.

Donkeys were used widespread during the mining boom of the nineteenth century as miners and other gold rushers preferred donkeys to transport water, wood and other mining equipments to mining site across America .

But after the mining boom came the introduction of the railroad system as a form of transportation in America . Soon trains were used in transferring materials and the use for the donkeys greatly diminished.

Tracing its origins in the vast desert regions of Egypt , donkeys found no problem in roaming the equally large American deserts as they were turned loose and became of little value.

Modern day donkeys are still a popular animal in the United States , in the form of a recreational and companion animal donkeys are proven to be great pets and are used as pack animals in a lot of outdoor national parks that offers adventures in the wilderness. Donkeys today are being groomed to be a guard animal that protects flocks of sheep from other wild animals such as coyotes.

When concerning species, the donkey itself is a species. The mule, however, is a direct result from a male donkey (jack) and female horse (mare) mating. Interestingly enough, mules can not reproduce, since they are in fact sterile. Donkeys, on the other hand, can reproduce at will.

As far as physical differences go, mules are usually slighter larger than donkeys. This makes sense, because mules are a result of a horse and donkey mating, and the mule inherits genes from both animals, including the horse’s height. Also, the donkey has a distinct bray, while the mule will have a combination between a whinny and a donkey bray.

As far as usage goes, mules can be used in any application that horses can. From sports, harnesses, cutting, or roping, the mule can do many things the donkey can not. Since the mule is a hybrid, it gets traits from the donkey and can carry more weight than a horse, and has much more stamina. Another interesting feature that mules have is their ability to jump- up to a few feet from standing still in place, much more than a horse could do.

Even though mules have much more uses than donkeys, the downfall is that they can not reproduce as a result from being sterile. The American Donkey and Mule Society claims donkeys outnumber mules about 10 to 1.

Even with all of these differences, one can easily mistake a mule and a donkey. With this guided knowledge, you should be able to now tell a donkey apart from a mule, which can prove very useful in many situations.