I hereby share a photo story of the donkey images posted on twitter at the eve of 8th May World donkey day 2022.
To read more about the world donkey day, here are some important links.
Donkey is multipurpose livestock, being used for ages for work, food, recreation, hobby, sports, and other purposes but still, the very important role of this unique creature is hiding from the eyes of the majority of the people, that is its’ ecological role.
The donkey consumes the woody vegetation of bushes, shrubs, and trees. They can consume and digest the dried and fallen parts of the flora in the dry season with the help of the strong and diverse gut microbiome. This specialized microbiome along with the nutrients rich manure makes a way to transfer to the soil through manure and helps in the enrichment of the soil and sustain the life of the soil microbiome. The soil microbiome provides nutrients to the rhizosphere of the plants and gives them the power to sustain and tolerate the droughts and high temperatures. This way, we have rich and fertile soil today. Though all herbivores play an important ecological role in ecosystem management the donkey is topping all.
Though not many participants still there was a reasonable number of people. The main interest in donkeys was shown in Africa. Mitchell Mutumba, a Namibian farmer told that they use the donkey for the farm animals’ protection. The donkey if trained will never allow the predators to enter the farm. That is really a very new a strange fact for me. We started twitter space on 7th May and entered on 8th May during the space. A Kenyan colleague (twitter name; Son of Africa) told his camel story from Kenya and told that he has seen many carcasses of donkeys without skins. Some people kill donkeys for their skins as there is a demand for donkey skins. He told that the donkey is still a very important working animal in his country. The South African innovative farmer Gugulethu Mahlangu, a famous farmer, and journalist told that the donkey’s future as a working farm animal is minimized manifold in her country because of the use of modern technology. Some other participants made jokes about donkeys, which was very painful to me.
Dr.Yatuwa Jude, the District Veterinary Officer KWEEN district Eastern Uganda shared some information about the donkey in Uganda and shared very beautiful pictures of the donkey from his country.
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-donkey-day/
https://arkbiodiv.com/2021/05/08/the-story-of-world-donkey-day/amp/
We face what could be the greatest predicament humankind has ever encountered: feeding the world without devouring the planet. Already, farming is the world’s greatest cause of habitat destruction, the greatest cause of the global loss of wildlife and the greatest cause of the global extinction crisis. It’s responsible for about 80% of the deforestation that’s happened this century. Of 28,000 species known to be at imminent risk of extinction, 24,000 are threatened by farming. Only 29% of the weight of birds on Earth consists of wild species: the rest is poultry. Just 4% of the world’s mammals, by weight, are wild; humans account for 36%, and livestock for the remaining 60%.
My connection is very real and strong with the camel. I’m not with the camels because of my job and profession but I love the camels the most. Camel is such an incredible creature. I have written almost 1000 scientific and general articles on camels and more than 500 lectures. If I start a talk on a camel, I can speak for hours. Here is my special picture with the camel.
All the photos are share by and credited to camel lady Valeri Crenshaw. She is on camel tour to one of the largest camel country Pakistan.
They swim up to three kilometres in the shallow seas to reach their grazing land – the region’s mangroves. They are well adapted to the coastal ecosystem. Generally camels are found in the desert and their foot well adapted to the sands which support them in the coast as well. You can watch a very beautiful video story of BBC on the Kharai camels in Gujrat state of India. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-58498881
The major portion of this breed found in the coastal areas of Sindh Pakistan but there is a reasonable number of the breed in Gujrat state of India. In India the breed is under threat because of the industrialization of the historical grazing lands. https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/travel-tourism/the-swimming-camels-of-kutch-how-to-protect-natures-unique-miracle/1789977/
The camel has medium-sized body, with comparatively longer necks & legs , and well developed barrel like thorax. The average milk production is 5 kg per day. The Kharai camel is one of the strongest and the most powerful draft camel in Sindh province.
The Manchar lake, Kharai camels, and many other flora and fauna biodiversity of the Indus delta are under threat, the main reason is climate change and low level flow of the Indus River. The breed is also under threat in Gujrat. The human greed for land, industrialization, and deforestation are the manmade crisis threatening this precious breed of camels.
The positive side of the story is that during the last decade, we have noticed awareness about this breed. You can find many stories, articles in the media during this period both from Pakistan and India. Here you can see different reports about the Kharai breed.
SUSTAINABLE FARMING FOR FOOD AND HEALTH 