Conservation of the African Wild Ass

One of the main reasons African Wild Asses are endangered is because of habitat loss

• They've lost their environment to farmers and ranchers which caused them to move to an environment that doesn't have the suitable resources such as vegetation and water that is being used by farmers
• Cattle ranchers and farmers started taking grasslands for domestic cattle, the African Wild Asses were pused out of areas where they had lived for thousands of years
• Due to these causes the population is currently about 570 individuals in the wild

(Survivality of the African Wild Ass based on average rainfall per year)

Timeline and Lineage

African Wild Asses (also known as the Equis africanus) have been around and domesticated for about 6,000 years

• The African Wild Ass is the wild ancestor of the donkey from Ancient Egypt
• These donkeys were domesticated by the villagers in the Egyptian Nile Valley
• It's a part of the Animalia kingdom
• The ancestors of the African Wild Asses were one grouping with Somali Wild Ass and the other with Nubia wild ass

Human Importance

African Wild Asses are often used in arid (dry) ecosystems

They're often hunted for medicines in places such as Ethiopia

African Wild Asses can also be used as a flagship species to maintain important landscapes.