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
Equus (play) produced as a large-format artist's book by the Old Stile Press, with images and an afterword by the British artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, in 2009. "Equus" was revived in San Jose, California, in March 2011 at City Lights Theater Company. This production, featuring actors Sean Gilvary as Alan Strang and Steve Lambert as Martin Dysart, received rave reviews. "The Mercury News" labeled Gilvary and Lambert as "haunting," stating Gilvary "...exposing emotions and epidermis, rides bareback in every sense. He gradually manages to make a rather unattractive young creature seem not only sympathetic but redeemable while retaining his hostility and humanity." Starkinsider