Monitoring Country
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Feral donkeys

Equus asinus
Feral donkeys

Donkeys are large, herbivorous, hoofed mammals. Though some donkeys are captive and domesticated, feral donkeys roam freely, breed in the wild, and are not cared for by anyone. Donkeys were first introduced to Australia in 1793, and when they were replaced by cars (1920-1930) they were released into the wild. Now, there are thought to be 2 to 5 million feral donkeys in Australia.

Feral Donkeys are a threat to healthy Country and native species

Feral donkeys are considered pests because they:

  • Spread weeds via their hair and dung
  • Increase soil erosion via trampling vegetation and creating tracks
  • Degrade/foul waterways and waterholes by increasing sedimentation
  • Compete for resources (food, shelter) with native animals
  • Damage native vegetation by overgrazing

Feral donkeys are listed as a declared pest in Western Australia, and ‘Novel biota and their impact on biodiversity’ is identified as one of the key threatening processes to native species under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Managing Feral Donkeys

Feral donkeys are difficult to manage as they are large animals that are widespread (often in remote areas). Best methods for managing feral donkeys are shooting (ground or aerial), fencing, and capture and removal.

Other common names: ass

placeSpecies Records

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Feral donkeys occurrence records © Atlas of Living Australia

Where they are

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Distribution
Feral donkeys can be found in northern Western Australia (Murchison, Gascoyne, Kimberley), northern and central Northern Territory, central and northern South Australia, and small pockets of Queensland.
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Habitat
Feral donkeys prefer arid country, particularly hills and ranges, but also like savanna, grassland, and open mulga/woodland country.
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Where they sleep
Feral donkeys sleep in short bursts, only a few hours per day, throughout the day and night. They have different types of rest, and usually sleep somewhere shaded.
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Where they eat
Feral donkeys prefer arid country, particularly hills and ranges, but also like savanna, grassland, and open mulga/woodland country.

Feral donkeys look much the same as domesticated donkeys; a range of colours and patterns, which can be regional. They often look dirtier and less groomed than captive donkeys. Key features include:

  • Long, tapered ears
  • Coarse mane and tail
  • Short mane and tail (compared to horses)
  • Lean, straight-backed build (compared to horses)
Feral donkeys

Feral donkeys. Credit: Euan Moore.

Scats

 

Tracks

  • where feral donkeys do and don't live
  • how many feral donkeys live on your Country
  • how well management of Country and feral donkeys is working

If you monitor the same place at the same time every year, you can see if there are changes to feral donkeys on Country.

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Remember Ethics and Permits

Any time you do work that might disturb or interfere with native animals and vegetation, particularly threatened species, you need to check with the state authorities to see if you need any approvals, such as scientific licences or animal ethics committee permits.

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Camera Traps
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ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING METHODS
What you can learn
  • Where feral donkeys live:
    • Occupancy – the proportion of sites occupied by a species.
    • Changes over time – are species being detected at the same sites every year, or are they disappearing from some and/or appearing at other sites?
    • Habitat preferences – does the species only occur in particular habitats?
  • Detection frequency – how often are they being detected in an area?
  • Behaviour – what are they doing in the photos?
  • Activity – you can know when they are active or passing through areas. This can also be used as an indicator of how large the population might be.
  • You can collect data from seeing feral donkeys in an image. You might be able to identify their age, sex, group size, health (skinny or fat) etc
Using it the right way

Camera traps can be used to monitor feral donkeys on Country. They can be set to automatically take photos or videos when an animal passes the camera. You can make your monitoring more efficient and cost effective by monitoring multiple species (including native and introduced species) with this method.

You will need to buy good quality remote cameras, but not much training is needed for deploying cameras or identifying species in the images. Images can also be processed first with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which can be useful when you have large numbers of images.

Cameras are a great way to monitor feral donkeys if you know, or are fairly confident that, they are on your Country. Feral donkeys are easily identifiable from camera images. You can put out lots of cameras and cover large areas, increasing the chance that you will detect them. They’re often not far from a water source which helps with choosing where to put cameras.

When planning to do a camera survey:

  • Feral donkeys use lots of different habitat types, so make sure the cameras are spread across all of the different major habitat types found on Country. If possible, have replicates in each habitat type.
  • Use cameras in areas suitable for camera trapping i.e. open enough to take photos, or along trails, good access
  • Avoid putting cameras in areas prone to flooding or becoming seasonally inaccessible, or make sure you collect cameras before it becomes inaccessible
  • Feral donkeys are generally crepuscular but can be active at all times of day.
  • If there is an obvious path or area that feral donkeys use, you can set up cameras to face this path. Angle the camera down the path, so that you increase the amount of time the camera has to take pictures as feral donkeys pass by.
  • Feral donkeys have a large body, so should easily trigger the camera sensors. If you use the standard camera trapping set up (height of 30 - 40 cm from ground) to monitor them you might only see their legs or lower half, so consider increasing the height to ~ 1 m, but be mindful that this might mean you won’t see some smaller animals easily
  • Whenever possible, proof image classifications (including images with “nothing” in them), especially when using AI.

 

Primary sources

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Tools and resources

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