What Is a Jackass? The Animal, Insult, and Its Relatives

A jackass is a male donkey. The word combines “jack,” the traditional English term for a male of certain animal species, with “ass,” which has been the standard name for the donkey (Equus asinus) since Old English borrowed it from Latin. Female donkeys are called jennies or jennets, and the young are foals. The term’s slide into insult territory happened centuries ago, drawing on a long cultural tradition of portraying donkeys as stubborn and foolish. But the animal behind the name is far more interesting and capable than its reputation suggests.

Donkey, Ass, Burro, Jackass

People use these words interchangeably and end up confused about whether they mean different things. They mostly don’t. “Ass” is the oldest English name for the animal, derived from the Latin asinus. “Donkey” appeared in English around the 18th century, possibly as a rhyme with “monkey,” and gradually replaced “ass” in everyday speech, likely because “ass” had picked up its separate anatomical meaning and people wanted to avoid the double entendre. “Burro” is simply the Spanish word for donkey and is commonly used in the American Southwest and in Latin America. “Jackass” specifies a male donkey, just as “jack” can refer to a male of other species. In practice, though, people use “jackass” and “donkey” to mean the same animal regardless of sex.

The species itself, Equus asinus, is a member of the horse family (Equidae). Donkeys share a common ancestor with horses and zebras but branched off millions of years ago. They are smaller than most horse breeds, with longer ears, a shorter mane that stands upright, and a distinctive bray rather than a neigh. Their hooves are smaller, more upright, and harder than horse hooves, a trait shaped by evolution in rocky, arid terrain.

Where Donkeys Came From

The domestic donkey descends from the African wild ass (Equus africanus), and its domestication was a turning point in how ancient societies moved goods and organized cities. Archaeological and genetic evidence points to domestication in northeastern Africa, with the process beginning roughly 5,000 years ago, though some estimates push earlier. The shift from wild ass to working donkey transformed transport systems across Africa and Asia and reshaped pastoral economies and early urban life.¹

Today, the African wild ass is critically endangered, with only a few hundred individuals surviving in parts of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The domestic donkey, by contrast, numbers in the tens of millions worldwide. That global spread happened because donkeys proved extraordinarily useful in harsh environments where horses struggled, and their low maintenance requirements made them accessible to people without much wealth or land.

Why Donkeys Behave the Way They Do

The reputation for stubbornness is probably the single biggest misconception about donkeys. What looks like obstinacy is actually a survival strategy. Horses evolved on open grasslands, where running from danger was the best option. Donkeys evolved in rocky, mountainous desert terrain where a panicked sprint could send you off a cliff. Instead of bolting, donkeys tend to stop, assess a situation, and decide what to do. They show a reduced flight response compared with horses but a greater tendency to stand their ground or freeze when threatened.²

This behavior has practical consequences. A donkey that refuses to walk onto shaky ground or cross a stream isn’t being difficult for the fun of it. It’s making a risk assessment. Experienced donkey handlers know that if you push a donkey too hard, it digs in. If you give it time to evaluate the situation and build trust, it cooperates. That evaluation process is sometimes called “stubbornness” by people who are used to horses, which tend to comply under pressure even when it’s not in their interest.

Donkeys are also stoic when it comes to pain and discomfort. They evolved to hide vulnerability, because in their original habitat, showing weakness attracted predators. This stoicism means that owners and veterinarians can have difficulty recognizing when a donkey is suffering until the problem has become severe.³ Researchers have developed specialized pain scales, including facial grimace scales, to catch subtler signs of distress that donkeys display compared to horses.²

Smarter Than Their Reputation

The image of the donkey as dim-witted goes back thousands of years, but research on equine cognition tells a different story. In a spatial reasoning test where animals had to find a detour around a barrier after the correct path was switched, horses showed significant spatial perseveration, meaning they kept going to the old location even after the route changed. Donkeys, however, did not get stuck in that rut; they performed at chance level rather than repeating the error. The researchers interpreted this as evidence that donkeys are less prone to rigid spatial habits.⁴

That same study found something even more interesting about mules, the hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Mules crossed the barrier faster than either parent species in the initial trials and also avoided the spatial error in the switched trials. The researchers suggested this represented hybrid vigor extending into cognitive abilities, not just physical traits. Whether you call it cleverness or mental flexibility, it’s a far cry from the “stupid jackass” stereotype.

Mules, Hinnies, and the Relatives

Donkeys, horses, and zebras are all equids, but they have different chromosome counts. Horses carry 64 chromosomes, donkeys carry 62, and various zebra species carry different numbers. When a male donkey (jack) breeds with a female horse (mare), the result is a mule. When a male horse (stallion) breeds with a female donkey (jenny), the result is a hinny. Both hybrids have 63 chromosomes, an odd number that usually prevents them from producing viable egg or sperm cells. The vast majority of mules and hinnies are sterile.

The word “usually” matters there. Rare cases of fertile female mules have been documented for centuries, though they remain exceptional. Researchers have mapped chromosomal rearrangements between horses and donkeys to better understand what makes hybrids almost universally sterile and why fertility occasionally slips through.⁵ Fertile male mules are essentially unknown.

Mules have been prized for thousands of years precisely because they inherit a useful combination of traits from both parents. They tend to have the size and strength of a horse with the sure-footedness, endurance, and toughness of a donkey. They eat less than a horse of comparable size, their hooves are harder, and they have a reputation for being less skittish. The U.S. Army used mules extensively through both World Wars for hauling supplies over rough terrain. Pack mules still work in mountainous areas worldwide where motorized vehicles can’t go.

Hinnies are less common than mules because the cross is harder to achieve. Jennies have a longer gestation period and a different reproductive physiology than mares, and stallion-jenny pairings simply don’t produce offspring as reliably. Hinnies tend to be slightly smaller than mules and are said to be more donkey-like in temperament, though individual variation is enormous in both hybrids.

How Donkeys Survive Where Others Can’t

Donkeys are desert-adapted animals, and their physiology reflects it in ways that go beyond tough hooves and long ears. A review of survival factors in semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa found that donkeys hold a set of advantages over cattle that add up to dramatic differences in drought survival. They have lower maintenance energy costs, partly because of their smaller body size and partly because they spend less energy while foraging. They digest low-quality forage almost as efficiently as ruminants like cattle, even though donkeys are hindgut fermenters. They are also highly selective feeders, meaning the actual quality of what they eat from a given pasture tends to be higher than what cattle manage to consume from the same land.⁶

Donkeys also tolerate thirst better and walk farther with less energy, allowing them to reach remote, underutilized forage sources that other livestock can’t access.⁶ Their large ears, which are such a visual hallmark, serve as heat radiators, dissipating body warmth through an extensive network of blood vessels close to the skin surface. These adaptations made the African wild ass successful in the Saharan and East African deserts, and they carry over directly into domestic donkeys and feral populations.

Social Lives on Their Own Terms

Donkeys organize themselves differently from horses, and this matters for understanding their behavior in both domestic and feral settings. Horses are herd animals with relatively stable social groups led by a dominant stallion. Donkeys are more loosely social. A study of feral donkeys on the Caribbean island of St. John found that the most common grouping for adult females was a small cluster of one or more females with their offspring. Adult males were most often seen alone. Nearly all social units were unstable and shifted over time, with the exception of a mother and her most recent foal.⁷

This fluid social structure reflects the ecology donkeys evolved in. In sparse desert environments, food and water are spread thinly across a landscape, making it less advantageous to stay in a large, permanent group. A horse herd on a rich grassland can stick together and collectively watch for predators. A donkey in a desert may do better by ranging widely and only loosely associating with others. When domestic donkeys are kept together in pastures, they can form strong bonds with specific companions, but the bonds tend to be between pairs rather than among large groups.

How “Jackass” Became an Insult

The donkey has been used as a symbol of foolishness, laziness, and sexual excess in Western culture for at least 2,500 years. Ancient Greek fables depicted the donkey as a bumbling figure. In Roman literature, Apuleius’s “The Golden Ass” from the second century CE made the donkey a symbol of degradation when a man is transformed into one. The animal’s low cultural status persisted through the Middle Ages and into the modern era, despite the donkey being arguably one of the most useful animals in human history.⁸

This cultural portrayal is a paradox. Donkeys have been bearing human burdens since domestication, yet they have consistently received little appreciation and harsh treatment.⁸ Part of the reason may be class associations: donkeys were the working animal of the poor, while horses were the animal of warriors and aristocrats. The behaviors that make donkeys excellent survivors in harsh conditions, such as careful assessment instead of obedient compliance, read to impatient humans as defiance or stupidity. And because “ass” was already the word for the animal, the leap to using “jackass” as an insult for a stubborn or foolish person was linguistically short.

The insult is firmly established in English by the 18th century at the latest. It carries connotations of being both rude and stupid, though in practice people use it more loosely to describe anyone behaving obnoxiously. The 2000s television franchise “Jackass” leaned into the self-deprecating angle, using the word to describe people doing deliberately foolish things. Regardless of the context, the insult draws its power from centuries of cultural bias against the animal.

Donkeys at Work Around the World

While donkeys are mostly companion animals and hobby farm residents in wealthier countries, they remain critical working animals for hundreds of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries. Small-scale farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America use donkeys for plowing, hauling water, transporting goods to market, and carrying construction materials. Working equids, including donkeys, contribute especially to earning and sparing income in food production, and they also play roles in accessing health services and benefiting women who rely on them for water and fuel collection.⁹

Despite this substantial contribution, donkeys remain one of the most overlooked working animals in development policy. Their role in agriculture, construction, mining, and even waste management in urban areas often goes unrecognized by governments and aid organizations.¹⁰ A woman in rural Ethiopia who loses her donkey to disease or theft may lose her ability to fetch water, carry firewood, or bring crops to market, with cascading effects on her family’s income and health. The animal that gets called a jackass is quietly holding up livelihoods across some of the world’s most challenging environments.

The Donkey Skin Trade

One of the most urgent threats to donkey populations in developing countries is the global trade in donkey hides. Donkey skin is the key ingredient in ejiao, a gelatin product used in traditional Chinese medicine. Demand for ejiao has surged in recent decades, and because China’s own donkey population has declined sharply, the trade has gone international. Donkeys are being bought, stolen, and slaughtered across Africa, South America, and Central Asia to supply the market, often devastating local populations that communities depend on for transport and agriculture.¹¹

Several African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, and Tanzania, have banned or restricted the slaughter of donkeys for skin export. But enforcement is uneven, and the trade has been linked to broader patterns of illegal wildlife trafficking. Researchers have documented connections between the donkey skin trade and trade in timber species of conservation concern, suggesting shared smuggling networks.¹¹ For communities that depend on donkeys, this isn’t an abstract conservation issue. It’s an economic crisis happening animal by animal.

Feral Donkeys as Ecosystem Engineers

Feral donkeys and horses roam public lands across the American West, Australia, and parts of Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean. In the United States, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 protects them on federal land, creating an ongoing tension between their legal protection and the ecological damage they can cause.

The ecological picture is genuinely complicated. On one hand, a study in the Sonoran Desert found that established feral burro herds were associated with striking declines in native vegetation. Density of Engelmann’s prickly pear cactus was about 94% lower in areas with burro herds, and saguaro cactus recruitment was roughly 63% lower. Key trees like yellow paloverde and desert ironwood also showed reduced foliage density.¹² These are large effects on iconic desert species.

On the other hand, feral equids also perform a form of ecosystem engineering that benefits other species. In North American deserts, feral donkeys and horses dig wells up to two meters deep to reach groundwater. These wells increased the density of water features in the landscape, reduced the distance between available water sources, and at times provided the only water present. Vertebrate species richness and activity were higher at these equid-dug wells than at adjacent dry sites, and the disturbed soil around the wells served as nurseries for riparian trees.¹³ In an increasingly dry West, that water provisioning may buffer some effects of climate-driven aridification.

This dual role puts land managers in a bind. Feral burros can clearly damage vegetation communities, but they also create water resources that other wildlife depends on. Management decisions about culling, relocating, or sterilizing feral burro herds involve weighing these competing ecological effects alongside the legal protections the animals carry and strong public sentiment in their favor.

Donkeys in Therapy

Donkeys have found a niche in animal-assisted therapy, particularly for people with mental health conditions and neurodevelopmental disorders. Their calm, curious temperament makes them approachable in ways that horses sometimes aren’t. Horses can be reactive and intimidating for people with anxiety or limited mobility. Donkeys tend to be quieter, smaller, and more willing to stand still for extended contact. Researchers describe them as empathetic, calm, and playful, qualities suited to stress reduction and fostering social interaction.¹⁴

The evidence base for donkey-assisted therapy is still thin compared to equine-assisted therapy with horses, and the field is young enough that firm conclusions about clinical effectiveness would be premature. But the qualities that make donkeys suitable for the work, their patience, their deliberate pace, their tolerance of unpredictable behavior from humans, are the same traits that, in other contexts, get dismissed as stubbornness or dullness. It’s a useful reminder that an animal’s value depends entirely on what you’re asking it to do.