: 239 While the word ass has cognates in most other Indo-European languages, donkey is an etymologically obscure word for which no credible cognate has been identified. The first recorded use of donkey was in either 1784 or 1785. Īt one time, the synonym ass was the more common term for the donkey. This means that the proper scientific name for the donkey is Equus africanus asinus when it is considered a subspecies and Equus asinus when it is considered a species. However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 2003 that if the domestic species and the wild species are considered subspecies of one another, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that subspecies was described after the domestic subspecies. Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. Jacks are often mated with mares to produce mules the biological reciprocal of a mule, from a stallion and jenny, is a hinny. While working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence, small numbers of donkeys or asses are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries.Ī male donkey is known as a jack or jackass, a female is a jenny or jennet, and an immature donkey of either sex is a foal.
There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where they are used principally as draught or pack animals. : 1 It was domesticated in Africa, probably about 5,000 : 2 or 6,000 : 3715 years ago, and has been used mainly as a working animal since that time. It derives from the African wild ass, Equus africanus, and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, Equus africanus asinus, or as a separate species, Equus asinus.
The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse.
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