Somali wild ass (Equus africanus somaliensis)

In short

The Somali wild ass (Equus africanus somaliensis) is a subspecies of the African wild ass, the wild ancestor group of the donkey. It was first described scientifically by Theodor Noack in 1884 (Wikipedia, Somali wild ass, backup). Its legs carry dark stripes like a zebra's (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Somali wild ass).

The IUCN Red List assesses the African wild ass species as Critically Endangered, the highest risk class before extinction in the wild (IUCN Red List, Equus africanus, 2015 assessment).

How many are left and where

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance estimates about 600 Somali wild asses in the wild (San Diego Zoo, "Somali Wild Ass: A Vanishing Breed Holds On"). Zoo Basel, which runs the main breeding programme, gives its range as Somalia (including Somaliland), the Southern Red Sea region of Eritrea and the Afar Region of Ethiopia, with about 200 more animals in zoos (Zoo Basel; Zoo Basel).

A field project supported by Zoo Basel counted 47 Somali wild asses before 2014 in the mountains between the Buri Peninsula and the Dallol Depression in Eritrea, near the Ethiopian border (Report to Basel Zoo, African wild ass in Eritrea, 2014).

Records from Somali lands

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) holds 10 records of this subspecies from Somalia. All 10 are museum specimens, collected between 1896 and 1936, and 6 of them are from Woqooyi Galbeed (GBIF occurrence search, Equus africanus somaliensis, country Somalia). GBIF holds no record of the animal in Somalia after 1936. That is a gap in the record, not proof of absence; GBIF only holds what scientists and museums have shared.

How it lives

Food and water are scarce in its range, so the Somali wild ass lives in a loose "fission and fusion" society. Most adults live alone. Females and young sometimes form small herds, and in wetter areas animals join larger groups for a time. Stallions hold territories of up to about nine square miles and mark them with dung piles (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Somali wild ass).

Foals are born after a pregnancy of about a year, usually in spring. A foal stands within hours, nibbles grass at about five days and is weaned at 12 to 14 months (San Diego Zoo, "A Vanishing Breed Holds On").

The zoo breeding programme

Zoo Basel in Switzerland began keeping Somali wild asses in 1970 and had its first birth in 1972. It keeps the European studbook, runs the European Endangered Species Programme for the animal, and has led the global species committee since 2004 (Husbandry and breeding of Somali wild ass at Basel Zoo, International Zoo Yearbook, 2008).

San Diego Zoo Safari Park received its first herd from Basel in 1981; its first foal was born in 1986 and 49 foals had been born there by 2018 (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance). Births have since been reported at Dallas, Saint Louis, Denver, Zoo Miami, White Oak, Dvůr Králové, Africa Alive, Knowsley and Woburn, among others (Saint Louis Zoo; BBC News, Knowsley foal, 2024; Denver Zoo).

Donkeys in Italy

Researchers found that some domestic donkeys in Italy descend from the Somali wild ass, going back to Roman times; a "horse" found at Pompeii was identified as a donkey (University of Cambridge, "Identity of Pompeii's mystery horse revealed").

Related pages

• Mammals of Somalia
• Woqooyi Galbeed

Sources

• IUCN Red List, Equus africanus, 2015
• GBIF occurrence records, Somalia
• San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
• Zoo Basel, Report on the African wild ass in Eritrea, 2014
• Wikipedia, Somali wild ass (backup)