Annie the donkey is a theatre pin up girl
Equus asinus
At this Lake District Wildlife Park, we love our three donkeys. Annie and Dooley are both five, living happily alongside the ‘old lady’ of the group Nova who is over 20 years old.
Our three have never shared their stable with a baby, but one is quite famous. Annie appeared on a fantastic poster for a Theatre by the Lake production of Midsummer Nights Dream. Her picture was taken by renowned photographer John Swannell who has photographed the Queen three times and has work published in Vogue, The Sunday Times and Tatler to name but a few.
Did you know a male donkey or ass is called a jack and a female is called a jenny? Their wild ancestor is the African Wild Ass. They were first domesticated around the same time as a horse – that’s 4000BC and they continued to be used as pack animals until the 20th century because they can carry 20-30% of their own bodyweight.
Today their numbers are still on the increase, though in Western Europe, they are kept as pets rather than work animals. There are around 44 million donkeys – 11 million in China alone.
Notoriously they have a reputation for being stubborn, but this is merely self preservation – studies show they are quite intelligent, friendly, cautious and eager to learn. We love our donkeys – and Santa does too – he sees them on the park during Christmas holidays!
