After feeding time, the John Donkeys will often use their feed tubs as a tug-of-war play toy. Here, Herschel (on left) and Zeus are both holding on to one of the tubs. They were doing this for about five minutes until I disturbed them. As soon as they saw me approaching, they dropped the tub…
Tug-of-War is a long-running game with these donkeys. They’ll do it with balls, tubs, and sticks. We’ve seen them run at full tilt whilst tugging at a toy between them. Sometimes it gets rough after a clear winner emerges - as the loser will taunt the winner and bite him. It’s all in good fun though. They love each other and especially love attention.