Burro
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into donkey. (Discuss) Proposed since February 2012. |
The burro is the donkey breed of Mexico, where the donkey population is among the largest in the world, estimated at three million.[1] There are burros also in Guatemala, Nicaragua and the southwestern United States. Burro is a Spanish word for donkey.
In the United States, burro is used both specifically for the feral donkeys of Arizona, California and Nevada, and, west of the Mississippi, generically for any small or standard donkey used primarily as a pack animal.[2]
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[edit] History
The first asses came to the Americas on supply ships to the Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus, and were landed at Hispaniola in 1495.[3] The first to reach North America may have been the two taken to Mexico by Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, who arrived there on 6 December 1528, and who in 1529 requested that more be sent in order to relieve the Indians, who had been branded and enslaved by the Conquistadores.[4]
[edit] In the USA
The first donkeys to reach what is now the United States may have crossed the Rio Grande with Juan de Oñate in April 1598.[4] From that time on they spread gradually northwards, finding use in missions and mines. Donkeys are documented in Arizona in 1679. During the Gold Rush years in the southwestern United States, the burro was the beast of burden of choice of early prospectors, many of whom were themselves of Mexican origin, and large numbers of burros were imported.[5] With the end of the mining boom, many of them escaped or were abandoned, and a feral population established itself. In February 2010 the estimated numbers of feral burros were:[6]
| State | Population |
|---|---|
| Arizona | 2248 |
| California | 1069 |
| Nevada | 1177 |
| Oregon | 15 |
| Utah | 164 |
| Total | 4673 |
Burros in some areas are protected by the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. These animals, considered to be a living legacy, are periodically at risk when severe drought conditions prevail. To reduce herd populations and preserve grazing land, the Bureau of Land Management conducts roundups of burro herds, some of which are then sold at public auctions.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Garcia-Navarro, Lourdes (8 May 2005) "Celebrating the Burro in Mexico" (transcript of radio broadcast). Accessed February 2012.
- ^ Burro in Merriam Webster Dictionary.
- ^ Roots, Clive (2007) Domestication Westport: Greenwood Press ISBN 9780313339875 p.179.
- ^ a b Brookshier, Frank (1974) The Burro Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p.221.
- ^ Olsen, Sandra L. (1995) Horses through time Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart Publishers for Carnegie Museum of Natural History. ISBN 9781570980602. Cited at Donkey International Museum of the Horse. Accessed February 2012.
- ^ Table 5-12: Wild free-roaming horse and burro populations as of February 28, 2010 U.S. Department of the Interior: Bureau of Land Management. Accessed February 2012.
[edit] External links
- National Wild Horse and Burro Program (Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior)
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