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Wild donkeys damage saguaros, other plants vital for the Sonoran Desert ecosystem

October 18, 2025
in News
Wild donkeys damage saguaros, other plants vital for the Sonoran Desert ecosystem
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PHOENIX – On a warm Wednesday afternoon, one burro with tan fur and large ears wandered the streets and desert surrounding Lake Pleasant with its herd. Many of the wild donkeys roam near the lake because it lowers the temperature of the surrounding areas. After eating some plants, a thorn gets stuck in the fur on the burro’s upper lip. The burro jumped over a metal barrier and quickly trotted towards a white Kia Sedona that had slowed to observe the animals.

The burro let the driver pet the top of its head, hoping its friendliness would earn food from the woman. When she tried to remove the thorn, the burro wouldn’t let her reach towards its mouth and hurried away to snack on more native plants.

A recent study from the Arizona Game and Fish Department found that the invasive species of burros threatens the native Sonoran Desert ecosystem life in the area. Explorers first brought the burros from Northern Africa and over time, they have escaped or been released into the desert.

Some biologists worry about the impact burros could have on the ecosystem by eating the larger plants. Many different species of plants and animals rely on saguaros, palo verde and ironwood trees for protection from the sun and predators.

  • Scottsdale aims to relocate wild horses from Salt River to McDowell Sonoran Preserve
  • Bureau of Land Management seeks homes for wild burros and horses in Arizona

Unlike native sheep and deer, burros have top and bottom incisors that are capable of tearing through plant life. Esther Rubin, a biologist for Game and Fish, explained that the damage to those plants could affect many other smaller species.

“There are many species, including endangered species, that rely on even the saguaros as a home,” Rubin said. “There’s something like 100 species that either find cover inside of a saguaro, in the holes of the cactus or feed on their fruits.”

The desert ecosystem is very fragile. Rubin said that this means that once it is damaged, it will take a very long time to rebuild, since the most important plants, – like saguaros, palo verde and ironwood trees – take decades to reach adulthood.

“By the time the average observer might notice that there are less saguaros around, it may be really difficult to turn that around,” Rubin said.

The burros are protected by the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency responsible for managing burro populations, has set up herd management areas, zones where burros are allowed to graze. This is meant to control the population and location of the burros, but there are no fences to keep the burros enclosed.

To protect the natural environment, Game and Fish said all of these areas should only have around 1,400 burros total, but the number in the areas has grown to about 10,000 burros. This does not include the burros that have spread outside the herd management areas.

According to Game and Fish, the burro population needs to be regulated to prevent damage to the ecosystem. The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group shares a similar goal and aims to control the population of horses near the river. The horse population needs to be maintained so that all horses born have enough resources to reach adulthood.

The president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, Simone Netherlands, said that the organization manages population by darting the female horses with Porcine Zona Pellucida, a form of birth control that lasts a year. Netherlands said that this reduces the birth rate from 100 to two foals each year. There is research that the same method, she added, could be used on burros.

“The only thing that’s more difficult with donkeys is keeping them apart,” Netherlands said. “So it’s very easy for us to keep the Salt River wild horses apart because we’ve known them ever since they were born, and all of our members pretty much know them by sight, and in our app, we also keep track of exactly what they look like.”

The wild horse group has an extensive database that keeps track of which horses have been darted and when it is time for a horse to have a foal. Due to the government shutdown, it is unlikely that the BLM will implement this kind of system for burros anytime soon.

Netherlands also said that there are positives to having burros in the Sonoran Desert. Burros can help other animal life find water sources.

“There are some studies that prove that burros are actually very helpful to other animals because they dig in the desert until they find water,” Netherlands said. “That, of course, helps all the other animals as well.”

Although wild burros can cause some harm to the environment, they are loved by Lake Pleasant visitors. People in every car that drove by the burro with the thorn on its lip slowed or stopped to snap a picture or tried to pet it. Many smitten passersby tried to remove the thorn, but none were successful. The burro ambled off into the desert, hooves kicking up sand, with the thorn still stuck on its face.

The post Wild donkeys damage saguaros, other plants vital for the Sonoran Desert ecosystem appeared first on KTAR.

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