Donkey have worked together with humans for millennia. Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is "Equus asinus asinus" based on the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 2003 that if the domestic species and the wild species are considered subspecies of one another, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that subspecies was described after the domestic subspecies. This means that the proper scientific name for the donkey is "Equus africanus asinus" when it is considered a subspecies, and "Equus asinus" when it is
African wild ass female collected by von Heuglin near Atbarah River, Sudan, and present in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, MNS 32026. The two subspecies recognized are the Nubian wild ass "Equus africanus africanus" (von Heuglin & Fitzinger, 1866), and the Somali wild ass "Equus africanus somaliensis" (Noack, 1884). African wild asses are well suited to life in a desert or semidesert environment. They have tough digestive systems, which can break down desert vegetation and extract moisture from food efficiently. They can also go without water for a fairly long time. Their large ears give them an excellent sense of hearing