Facts, Diet, Habitat & Pictures on Animalia.bio (2025)

Tropical

Arid

Temperate

Cold

Habits and Lifestyle

Donkeys are highly social creatures, eagerly associating with both conspecifics and other livestock animals, including horses, cows, goats, sheep, and llamas. Periods of increased activity occur in the morning and evening, while the midday hours are typically spent resting. Donkeys are extremely cautious by nature, due to which they will avoid doing anything that seems to be dangerous. For example, when alarmed, they usually freeze or run. When the danger has passed, donkeys try to find the source of the threat. As a result, they got a reputation as stubborn animals, although they are actually quite obedient, hard-working creatures. Normally quiet and peaceful, they fiercely defend their foals when needed. Moreover, donkeys are sometimes trained to protect other domestic livestock such as sheep and goats. When under threat, they show a remarkable degree of aggression, occasionally attacking and trampling large dogs and humans.

Diet and Nutrition

Donkeys generally maintain an herbivorous (graminivorous) diet. These grazing mammals primarily rely on grass, occasionally using shrubs and desert plants.

Donkeys are polygynous, which means that one male mates with many females during a breeding season. Breeding occurs year-round. The gestation period usually lasts for 11-14 months, after which a single foal is born. Newborn babies are developed and are able to stand and feed during the first 30 minutes of their lives. Weaning occurs at 5 months old. Both males and females of this species are ready to mate at 2 years old, although males usually do so only after 3-4 years old when they become dominant.