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image credit: tigertailfoods.comHabitat: Poitou region of France
Status: Domesticated, but rare breed.
The Poitou Donkey, otherwise known as the Mammoth Donkey, is an very interesting creature, being extremely “friendly, affectionate and docile” and its the oldest approved breed in France. However, it is also the least-known and rarest.
There may be only around 180 purebred Poitou in existence and it is placed on The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy list. It is instantly recognizable by a number of strange characteristics but mostly by this: ” Its shaggy coat, called a “cadanette“, hangs in “long cords or shaggy hanks” when ungroomed because the hair is longer and softer than that of other breeds of donkey. Animals with great cadanettes of matted and tangled hair were most highly valued.” (via Wikipedia)
In the Middle Ages, owning a Poitou Donkey may have been a status symbol among the local French nobility.
To me they just look like Rastafarian donkeys. Or hippie donkeys. Either way, I love them.
