The taxonomy or classification of animals can, in many cases, give rise to numerous doubts, since sometimes we are not able to identify if two different nomenclatures refer to the same animal or if, on the contrary, it is a species and subspecies, for example.
Some animals are known by similar names but are part of different species, others can be called by several distinctly different names and still be the same species. Therefore, there are multiple cases that can confuse us and need to be clarified.
Surely on some occasion you have wondered what the differences between ass and donkey are, and in this article on our site we answer your questions.
What differentiates a donkey from a donkey?
When we talk about donkeys we can all evoke the image of an animal with characteristic long ears and a tail endowed with great fur, which has traditionally been extended as a pack animal. Well, when we talk about donkeys, although we may not know this fact, we are talking about the same animal, since there is no difference, both terms are synonyms and are used to designate the same animal.
The words donkey and donkey are used indifferently to talk about the same species of animal: Equus africanus asinus. In any case we are talking of an animal that, together with zebras and horses, forms part of the equidae family.
Differences in the etymology of ass and donkey
Etymology can be defined as the origin of words and the reason for their existence, and although ass and donkey are terms that designate the same animal, as we have already been able to clarify, yeshave different origins :
- The word donkey comes from the Latin term "asinus '" whose meaning refers directly to this animal.
- The word donkey comes from the Latin term "burricus" which means "small horse".
Mule and hinny are terms that refer to the same species?
"Mule" is another term that is widely used, but in this case it does not refer to a donkey or ass (Equus africanus asinus) but to an animal resulting from the cross between a donkey and a mare.
The word hinny does not indicate that we are dealing with a donkey or an ass, but refers to a hybrid between a donkey and a horse, being much more complex to be able to reproduce this specimen compared to the mule.
Therefore, we can conclude that ass and donkey are the same animal, but mule and hinny are different animals fruits of the cross between horses and donkeys.
