The Elusive West African Red Ass

One thing there is not a lot of in West Africa is genetic variation, at least not among domesticated animals. When you picture in your mind cows, goats, sheep, camels, dogs, horses and donkeys you can be confident that the same picture appears in the heads of everybody else in West Africa because they all look the same. All donkeys are grey with a black stripe across the shoulders, all horses are white with a dyed red tail and mane and with a Toureg rebel on top and all dogs look like Santa’s Little Helper, including ours:

(Hercules is wicked cute!)

Obviously, when you make a sweeping generalization like this one you immediately see contrary examples pop up. Yes, of course, there is occasional black horse and tan donkey but not often, virtually never. We have yet to see anything other than a variation on the S.L.H. theme when it comes to dogs. That is why it is so strange to occasionally come across the extremely rare and exotic West African red ass.


“Red donkeys? I don’t think they exist,” you say. While these shy and elusive creatures are rarely seen by the casual visitor, Sam and Mark just so happen to live next to the plastic and cardboard (they can’t afford tar-paper) shacks of the falitigi (donkey boss) trash collectors. Owing to the sheer numbers of donkeys observed, we occasionally spot a red one. Incredible but true, not unlike seeing an all black penguin in the Antarctic, a white buffalo in Janesville, Wisconsin, or a R.O.U.S. (Rodent of Unusual Size) in a fireswamp.


After each ludicrously long and horribly unhealthy day of trash collection, the falitigis return and unhitch their donkeys from their carts, allowing them to roam the neighborhood streets. Not far from our house, near the smoldering mountain of trash (Note: this is not an exaggeration. There really is a three story high mountain of trash burning constantly, raining ash down and wafting the smell of burning plastic into our house year round. Glamorous!) there is a portion of the road which has been repaired with the red earth for which Africa is so famous. These red rocks have been pulverized by heavy trucks and ground into such a fine powder that it covers our feet, gets on our clothes and into our lungs. Donkeys love to roll around in the dirt to cool off and stop the bugs from biting them, at least for a little while. Every once in a great while they use this unique spot. The result is a strange sight: bright red donkeys. Behold!