- The smallest members of the horse family, the domesticated ass is
also called a donkey or burro.
- The animals stand 3 to 5 ft at the shoulder and have a brush-tipped
tail about 17 in long; their weight ranges up to 570 lb.
- The coat is gray to reddish brown, and the wiry mane is dark.
- The ears are long and the feet small, with sharp hooves. The donkey
is an herbivorous mammal.
- The donkey is related to the horse, and, although smaller, it is capable
of carrying a full-size human over a considerable distance.
- Often mistaken for the mule, the donkey is physically similar and
has a loud bray
- Donkeys ears are MUCH longer in proportion to their size than a horse
- The necks are characteristically straighter in the longears, and
most donkeys and all zebras lack a true wither.
- The croup and rump are also a different shape in the donkey and it_s
hybrids, lacking the double-curve muscled haunch.
- The back is straighter due to the lack of withers
- The mane and tail in the donkey are coarse. The mane is still and
upright, rarely laying over, and the tail is more like a cow's, covered
with short body hair for most of the length, and ending in a tasseled
switch.
- Donkeys do not have a true forelock, although sometimes the mane grows
long enough to comb down between the ears toward the eyes
- Donkeys can also make wonderful guard animals
- Donkey hooves are smaller and rounder, with more upright pasterns
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