African wild ass

Description

The African wild ass or African wild donkey (Equus africanus) is a wild member of the horse family,Equidae.This species is believed to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey,which is usually placed within the same species.They live in the deserts and other arid areas of the Horn of Africa,in Eritrea,Ethiopia and Somalia.It formerly had a wider range north and west into Sudan,Egypt,and Libya.About 570 individuals exist in the wild.It is a highly social species,as it lives in herds with separate hierarchies for males and females.Unlike most gregarious carnivorous mammals,it is the females and not the males that leave the herd of origin once they have reached sexual maturity,and the puppies are allowed to eat the carcasses first.The African wild dog is a diurnal predator,specialized in hunting antelopes,which captures through the pursuit conducted to the exhaustion of the herbivore.Like other canines,it regurgitates food for puppies,but extends this behavior to adults,to the point of making this action a foundation of social cohesion.He has few enemies in nature,although lions ' predation is a frequent case of death,Hyenas stained often robbed food.Although it does not frequently appear in African stories and myths as other carnivores,it was respected in the different hunting and gathering cultures,in particular both among the predynastic Egyptians and the saints.