Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, especially across semi-arid and upland environments. They remain insufficiently studied despite globally expanding and providing key support to low- to middle-income communities. To elucidate their domestication history, we constructed a comprehensive genome panel of 207 modern and 31 ancient donkeys, as well as 15 wild equids. We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa ~5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa. We uncover a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant ~200 BCE, which contributed increasing ancestry toward Asia. Donkey management involved inbreeding and the production of giant bloodlines at a time when mules were essential to the Roman economy and military.
Abstract, The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys.
4 comments:
There is one masterful film by the French, deeply Catholic auteur, Robert Bresson, "Au hasard Balthazar," about a misused, saintly donkey, Balthazar. To this day, I still do not know if Balthazar's death scene is staged or actual. If real, it raises troubling moral questions in the viewer, which perhaps was Bresson's aim. On the other hand, feral burros anywhere in the world are trouble; yet we protect them with absurd federal edicts at a needless cost to vulnerable native wildlife.
Tom
Sheridan, WY
Personally, I'm not a huge donkey fan, as a lot of them have bad attitudes. I like horse and mules, but donkeys not so much. I will say that they're one of the oldest, and least celebrated, true beasts of burden on Earth. Maybe that's why they have bad attitudes.
I agree with you regarding the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, and I applaud your use of the word "feral". There are wild donkeys, onagers, but they are a Central Asian animal. Feral donkeys are a complete nuisance and are damaging to the ecosystems in which they live. That's my view on wild horses as well, which really have no place in the ecosystem outside of Mongolia. Wild horses in North America are feral, a non-native and destructive presence on the range.
I once wrote a piece, somewhat tongue in cheek, along the lines of "exterminate the brutes" about feral equines--whose protection I find mindless. The response was over 600 letters to the editor, demanding my hide. I never felt more like, or happier than, the "stranger" at the end of Camus's novel.
Tom
Sheridan, WY
In law school I had a friend, the year in front of me, who had retired from the Park Service. On this topic, and this law, his comment was "shoot them all", and he wasn't kidding.
I may have posted here once about how this was once handled in this region. I'll look for it, and if not, it'd be a good topic on what the supposed theme of this blog is.
By the way, I noted that my comment updater on this blog isn't working right now, so I'll have to see if I can fix that so that people know that there are new comments coming in. If I don't reply to them right away, by the way, it doesn't mean I won't. I don't reply to ever post, but I sometimes reply to them several days after they're first made.
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