African Wild Ass - in Captivity

In Captivity

There are about 150 individual Somali wild asses living in zoos around the globle of which 36 were born at Zoo Basel, where this species's breeding program started with Basel's first Somali wild asses in 1970 and the first birth in 1972.

Zoo Basel manages the European studbook for the Somali wild ass and coordinates the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). All European and American wild donkeys are either descendants of the original group at Zoo Basel or of 12 others that came from the Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel in 1972.