A Review of the Factors Affecting the Survival of Donkeys in Semi-arid Regions of Sub-Saharan Africa

Smith, Dave; Pearson, R A

Abstract

The large fluctuations seen in cattle populations during periods of drought in sub-Saharan Africa are not evident in the donkey population. Donkeys appear to have a survival advantage over cattle that is increasingly recognized by smallholder farmers in their selection of working animals. The donkey's survival advantages arise from both socioeconomic and biological factors. Socioeconomic factors include the maintenance of a low sustainable population of donkeys owing to their single-purpose role and their low social status. Also, because donkeys are not usually used as a meat animal and can provide a regular income as a working animal, they are not slaughtered in response to drought, as are cattle. Donkeys have a range of physiological and behavioural adaptations that individually provide small survival advantages over cattle but collectively may make a large difference to whether or not they survive drought. Donkeys have lower maintenance costs as a result of their size and spend less energy while foraging for food; lower energy costs result in a lower dry matter intake (DMI) requirement. In donkeys, low-quality diets are digested almost as efficiently as in ruminants and, because of a highly selective feeding strategy, the quality of diet obtained by donkeys in a given pasture is higher than that obtained by cattle. Lower energy costs of walking, longer foraging times per day and ability to tolerate thirst may allow donkeys to access more remote, under-utilized sources of forage that are inaccessible to cattle on rangeland. As donkeys become a more popular choice of working animal for farmers, specific management practices need to be devised that allow donkeys to fully maximize their natural survival advantages

Citation

Smith, D., & Pearson, R. A. (2005). A Review of the Factors Affecting the Survival of Donkeys in Semi-arid Regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. Tropical Animal Health and Production, 37(S1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-005-9002-5

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2005-01
• Deposit Date: May 15, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: May 15, 2015
• Print ISSN: 0049-4747
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-7438
• Publisher: BMC
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 37
• Issue: S1
• Pages: 1-19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-005-9002-5
• Keywords: adaptation; Africa; donkey; drought; survival strategies
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/8155
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11250-005-9002-5
• Contract Date: May 15, 2015