Donkeys: Lettuce Have Some!

There are two observations you can take away from this video pretty quickly: 1) donkeys love lettuce; and 2) donkeys have long ears. Let’s explore both of these…

 

Here we see Callie, the skewbald Jenny on the left, Nestle, the brown John donkey to the right, and Mocha, the dark Jenny on the far right. All of them are excited to see that we have some lettuce for them today as a treat. We mostly feed carrots as a treat, but sometimes lettuce does the trick. See how eagerly they munch on it. You’ll notice that Mocha is more tentative as she approaches. Although she can be hand-fed, she is very cautious and you have to let her come to you. In contrast, Callie and Nestle allow you to walk right up to them without any worry.

 

Now consider the length of these donkey ears. A horse ear is a mere six and a half inches versus a donkey’s which is a whopping thirteen inches. This is the way they were made… Although they are herd animals, donkeys often wander about to graze in their native desert surroundings. This means they need to be able to hear each other from longer distances than horses, since horses tend to stay packed together when grazing. Also, donkey ears are also used as a “radiator” which keep them cool.

 

If you look closely, off in the distance and on the other side of the paddock fence, you can see the other four John Donkeys eyeing the proceedings. It won’t be long before their leader, Jules – the dark brown American Mammoth, starts kicking the gate to let us know it’s his turn to eat.