The donkey or ass (Equus africanus asinus) is a domesticated member of the equine family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African wild ass, E. africanus. The donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5,000 years. There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where they are mainly used as draft or pack animals. Working donkeys are often associated with those who live below or below the subsistence level. A small number of donkeys are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries. Donkeys can also be used as cattle breeders.

A male donkey or ass is called a jack, and a female a jenny or jennet; a young donkey is a colt. Jacks are often used to mate with female horses to produce mules; the biological “reciprocal” of a mule, from a stallion and jenny as parents instead, is called a hinny.

Asses were first domesticated around 3000 BC, probably in Egypt or Mesopotamia, and spread throughout the world. Today, they continue to fill important roles in many places. As domesticated species grow, the African wild boar is an endangered species. As pack animals and companions, donkeys and donkeys have worked with humans for millennia.

Traditionally, the donkey’s scientific name is Equus asinus asinus, based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature decided in 2003 that if domestic and wild species are considered subspecies of each other, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that subspecies was described by the domestic subspecies. This means that the correct scientific name for the donkey is Equus africanus asinus when considered a subspecies and Equus asinus when considered a species.

Beginning in the 18th century, the donkey gradually replaced ass and jenny replaced the bottom, which is now considered archaic. The change may have been caused by a tendency to avoid offensive terms in speech and may be comparable to the replacement in North American English of a rooster for cock,or that of rabbit for coney, which was formerly homophonic with cunny (a variation of the word cunt).By the end of the seventeenth century, changes in the pronunciation of both ass and arse had caused them to become homophones in some varieties of English. England and dicky in southeastern England;:239 moke is documented in the 19th century and may be of Welsh or Romani origin.

Donkeys vary considerably in size, depending on breed and management. The height at the withers varies from 7.3 to 15.3 hands (31 to 63 inches, 79 to 160 cm) and the weight from 80 to 480 kg (180 to 1060 lb). Donkeys working in the poorest countries have a life expectancy of 12 to 15 years; in more prosperous countries, they can live for 30 to 50 years.

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