A 60-year-old herder in the grassland of Inner Mongolia told me: Wild wolves are afraid of donkeys, and raising a donkey in the flock can prevent wolves. why is that?
In 2015, I went to a friend's house in Inner Mongolia to have a trip and found a few donkeys around his sheep pen, but I didn't find sheepdog . I was curious, so I asked his old man and the reply I received subverted my concept. The old man said: The donkey is the natural enemy of the wolf. The wolf will be scared when he sees the donkey, so he will not dare to attack the flock. In this way, the lambs in the flock will be safe.
Later, I checked the information and found that this is done in many places, even in foreign ranches. raising donkeys in the flock of sheep is safer than raising sheepdogs.
In 2003, a surprising story happened on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. A mother of an wild donkey found that her child was attacked by a wolf pack. As a result, the wild donkey rushed towards the wolf pack without saying a word and kicked the wolf king over. In the end, not only did the child stay, but also dispersed the wolf pack. The wolf king was kicked to the death gate by it, and he was already dead.
Is wild donkey really the natural enemy of the wolf? A meat-eating wolf can't beat a vegetarian wild donkey. What's going on?
About Wild Donkey
Wild Donkey does not look small like a domestic donkey. Wild Donkey is very large. Adult Wild Donkey is about the same size as mule and horses. It is a large ungulate animal. Wild donkeys live between 25 and 30 years old and are not considered long-lived among herbivores. The wild donkey is very tall, with reaching more than 1.2m, with an average body length of 2.6m and a tail length of 80cm, which is larger than an average domestic donkey. The wild donkey weighs very much, with an average weight of 500 kilograms, and it is not a problem to grow to 700 kilograms.
Wild donkeys look very cute and look very similar to mules. The wild donkey's lips are very slender, and they also have long pointed ears. Their ears are so powerful that they can hear movements within 10 miles of radius and their hearing is very sensitive, which also provides a good guarantee for their survival.
The back of the wild donkey is a light yellow-brown fur color, and there is a tan back line on the back, which extends to the base of the tail. It looks very unique and different from the color of the back. Their abdomen are white, and the light yellow-brown colors on the waist and back are perfectly blended, and they do not look abrupt.
Wild donkey is a typical desert animal, mainly living in open meadows above 3,800 meters, desert grassland and semi-desert grassland areas. It is mainly distributed in Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang regions in my country. It is a group of daily life animals. Wild donkeys are very drought-resistant. In winter without water, you can last a long time with just a bite of snow. Although wild donkeys are drought-resistant, they like water very much and like to bathe in the water. In places with abundant water in summer, they will play in the ponds and rivers, which is very lively.
Wild donkey is a herbivorous animal, mainly feeding on Poaceae , Sedge family and Lily family forage, but has a very bad temper and its limbs are terrible. During the breeding period, the male wild donkey has a stronger temper and fights whenever he disagrees, because only the winner has the right to mating.
Why are wolves afraid of wild donkeys?
In fact, it is not right to say that wild donkeys are the natural enemy of wolves. Although wolves may be difficult to hunt adult wild donkeys, they are also in the wolf's recipes. Even though he said so, the wild donkey is indeed an existence that the wolf does not want to provoke. If is not absolutely necessary, the wolf will not attack the wild donkey. Why is this?
The wild donkey is very large and its strength is much higher than that of a wolf.The average length of the wild donkey in is 260cm, height of 120cm, and weight above 220kg. Compared with the huge wild donkey, the wolf looks a bit small. Taking the Inner Mongolia grassland wolf as an example, with the length of its tail, it is only about 170cm, and the weight is even lighter. It is rare to see wolves over 100 kilograms in , most of them are around 80 kilograms.
In this size gap, the strength gap is also very obvious. The strength of the wild donkey's full-strength attack is more than 5 times its own body weight. Once built, the wolf's head must bloom. Moreover, the wild donkey's attack methods are also very rich. In addition to the famous back kick, the wild donkey's bite force is also very strong. Many times, the wild donkey also relies on biting to solve the wild beasts that attack it. Once you are bitten by a wild donkey, you will never give up until the last moment.
The speed of the wild donkey may be slower than that of the wolf, with an average speed of about 50 kilometers per hour, while the average speed of the wolf is 55 kilometers per hour. However, wolves are not suitable for long-distance running, and their endurance is a little worse. Wild donkeys can run at high speed like horses for a long time, which is also a major advantage of wild donkeys.
Wild donkeys are sociable animals, and they are very smart and intelligent sociable animals. Wolves are generally familial animals, with a population of between 5 and 10, which is a bit smaller than those in the wild donkeys. The number of donkeys in the is several times that of the wolf pack.
Moreover, wild donkeys are very vigilant, and they maintain a very high vigilance even when eating. As long as there is any movement around them, they can feel it as soon as possible. When chooses to escape, he does not run around and run around, but obeys the commands of the leader and escapes in an orderly manner.
0,000 can't escape, and the wild donkey will not accept his fate, but will rise up and resist. The wild donkey itself is very aggressive and has much greater power than the wolf. In addition, " donkey temper " comes up. Even if the lion group and tiger group are in front of it, the wild donkey is not weak, and it will still fight . This is also one of the reasons why wolves do not provoke wild donkeys easily.
In addition to its outstanding attack power, wild donkeys have outstanding defense power. They not only have thick and tough skin, but also have a powerful defense method. When is attacked, they will roll around the ground to defend against enemy attacks. This is the so-called "donkey rolling". I think the famous food "donkey rolling" is named based on this.
Conclusion
Wild donkeys are not the natural enemy of wolves. Instead, wolves will catch wild donkey cubs as food . The reason why wolves are "feared" with wild donkeys is indeed because the strength of wild donkeys is very strong, and the other is that they provoke wild donkeys. The efforts and rewards are not proportional to them, and wild donkeys are not easy to catch, so unless they have to, wolves will not provoke wild donkeys.
. Herders raise donkeys to prevent wolves. It is not simply that the wolf is afraid of the donkey, but because the donkey is very vigilant and has a strong sense of territory. When the wolf approaches, it will make short and powerful hoarse screams, and it is indeed difficult to kill. When the fight is mixed together, it is easy for the herdsmen to come. So what the wolf is afraid of is the human behind the donkey, not the donkey itself.
Do you think wild donkeys are really the natural enemy of wolves? Are meat-eating wolves really no match for vegetarian wild donkeys? What do you think about this?
