Equus africanus

A donkey in mid day high noon feeding on harmattan dried grass. I took this photograph in northern Nigeria.

Donkeys are a regular feature in northern Nigerian culture where they are used to haul harvest and farm produce by farmers in the north.

Like their bigger equidae cousin, the horse they couldn't make a successful habitation and settlement of the southern part of Nigeria with it's forested zones playing host to the Tsetse fly a vector of Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and therefore a natural enemy of most ungulates and most notably the equidae family (horses, donkeys, zebras etcetera).

The distribution of the Nigerian population of donkeys is mostly along the Savannah regions of northern Nigeria. In the north the main population of donkeys are mostly domesticated with very few feral population. They are bred mostly for assistance in farm work where they serve as "beasts of burden". Of recent there have been a growing concern on a threat to the local population of donkeys in northern Nigeria due to demand for it's body parts as constituents of Chinese medicine and ingredients in exotic Chinese cuisines. Typically the genitals of a male donkey demanded for purpose of Chinese medicine or exotic cuisines can sell for as much as $300.

It is presently illegal to butcher a donkey in Nigeria for purpose of exporting it's body parts out of the country and donkey meat is rarely considered food in the northern part of the country with it's abundance of livestock.

In the southern part of the country towards the forest and Niger-Delta regions the donkey population is very sparce and they are considered more as a delicacy than used as a beast of burden.

The cooked meat of a donkey is usually of a fuller red colour than that of most Nigerian livestock, this is probably due to an abundance of myoglobin in it's bigger skeletal muscles that makes it a powerful animal for hauling heavy goods. It has a very delicious taste, a bit gamy in flavour something in-between a deer and a broiler chicken. It is tender to bite with it's meat coming lose in red striated muscle fiber bundles.

I have been opportuned to eat it's cooked meat a few times although it is hardly my favourite animal protein since it is very scarce.

I do hope you liked reading my post on "a donkey feeding in the mid day high noon".

I wish you all a happy new year full of pleasant surprises.