Did you know that all the donkeys in the world descend from a wild animal that is now on the verge of disappearing? It is the African wild ass, and here you can meet its most striking form: the Somali wild ass, with a gray body and zebra-striped legs. It lives in the rocky deserts of the Horn of Africa, where it can go a long time without drinking, and its bray can be heard for kilometers. Very few are left in the wild today and it is critically endangered. Its descendant, the domestic donkey, has been working alongside people for about seven thousand years. It has a reputation for being stubborn, but that is unfair: faced with something it doesn’t know, the donkey doesn’t flee, it stops to think. Prudence, memory and strength: the legacy of a desert survivor.