WILD BURROS

Wild Burros Roam the Range Protecting Their Turf and Defending Their Young

They're cute, but tough. The females make protective mothers and great companions. Shaggy, tenacious and endearing, wild burros, survivors of the Old West, carry on with a pioneering spirit as they walk the backcountry and, sometimes, the streets of historic mining towns. Turned loose by early-day miners gone bust, these hardy relatives of the African ass succeed at intimidating mountain lions, scrounging for sustenance and finding water; now they're overrunning water holes, chewing the bark off trees and uprooting desert shrubs and grasses. That makes life rough for bighorn sheep, deer and other less tough-minded competitors, not to mention discomfited mountain lions and coyotes that have gone up against the burros' well-developed parental instincts and lost. Burros first entered the Southwest with the Spanish conquistadores in the 1500s. By the the time the Grand Canyon became a national park in 1919, wild burros had overrun the area. Between 1924 and 1968, more than 2,800 feral burros were killed or removed from the park. In 1971, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which made it a felony to kill a feral horse or burro and protected the animals as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." The Arizona Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 10 herd areas in Arizona, supporting more than 3,000 wild burros and 200 wild horses on nearly 4 million acres of public lands originally occupied by the animals when the act was adopted. Herds roam western Arizona, concentrated around water supplies near the lower Colorado River, Lake Alamo and Lake Pleasant and old mining towns including Cerbat, Vulture City, Swansea and Oatman. Feral burros often dominate a water hole, keeping thirsty competitors, such as bighorn sheep, away from the source. They can sniff out underground water and dig to create new water holes from subsurface rivers and streams. The burros thrive where many others wilt. They feed on desert grasses, cactuses and tree bark. When food becomes scarce, they bite plants to the ground, then dig up the roots with their hooves. Mature burros stand about 4 feet at the shoulder and weigh approximately 400 pounds. Although most of the feral burros are gray, color variations include brown, roan, black and dusty pink. Social by nature, burros congregate in divided herds with the males, or jacks, sticking together and the females, or jennies, and their young in a separate group. The jennies start to occupied by the animals when the act was adopted. Herds roam western Arizona, concentrated around water supplies near the lower Colorado River, Lake Alamo and Lake Pleasant and old mining towns including Cerbat, Vulture City, Swansea and Oatman. Feral burros often dominate a water hole, keeping thirsty competitors, such as bighorn sheep, away from the source. They can sniff out underground water and dig to create new water holes from subsurface rivers and streams. The burros thrive where many others wilt. They feed on desert grasses, cactuses and tree bark. When food becomes scarce, they bite plants to the ground, then dig up the roots with their hooves. Mature burros stand about 4 feet at the shoulder and weigh approximately 400 pounds. Although most of the feral burros are gray, color variations include brown, roan, black and dusty pink. Social by nature, burros congregate in divided herds with the males, or jacks, sticking together and the females, or jennies, and their young in a separate group. The jennies start to breed around four years of age and bear a foal about every 18 months. With the booming birthrate and the absence of natural predators, Arizona burro populations can easily double every few years. Although mountain lions sometimes attack young burros, the lions quickly learn that the protective mothers will defend their foals with a ferocious vigor, banding together so the predator must face many strong teeth and sharp hooves. The BLM sets a target size for each herd, based on the number of burros the area can ecologically support without threatening native wildlife and vegetation. The extra burros are taken to The Kingman Regional Wild Horse and Burro Facility, where they receive veterinary care and booster shots before being admitted into the Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program. Since the inception of the program in 1972, more than 3,000 Arizona burros have been adopted. The animals live up to 30 years in captivity, and their amiable nature makes them well-suited to jobs as pack animals and, oddly enough, as guard burros. Protective by nature, a burro will bond with a herd of several hundred sheep. Ranchers have reported that guard burros will attack feral dogs and coyotes, even killing predators with their sharp hooves. "Most of them that go into that business are successful because coyotes are their enemies," says Kelly Grism, wild horse and burro specialist at BLM. Grism relates a story about a man who adopted a burro as a pet and every morning cooked an extra pancake for it. One morning, two months later, he looked out to see the gate open and his burro standing on a ridge. He debated calling to report the escapee to BLM, but first went ahead with his morning routine. As he sat down, he looked up to see his burro standing outside the window waiting for his pancake. "That's how quickly they adapt," Grism says. A rancher recalls the day his flock returned without their sentry. He went to search for the errant burro and found her in a field, standing guard over the newest addition to her fluffy family. Which just goes to prove that you can go a long way with a good attitude and strong parenting instincts even if you are a jackass.

(RIGHT) Adopted wild burros work good-naturedly as loyal guard and pack animals.