Talk:Nubian wild ass

Link at IUCN Red List doesn't work. Patafisik (talk) 11:56, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Citation needed
Whoever wrote this appears to be pulling a lot of details out of thin air. Stop it. Get some references, dude. Stephen Charles Thompson (talk) 07:36, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Captive / wild / extinct
I moved this inline comment from the article to here:

"Also that it, as suggested here, is present in captivity ("extinct in the wild" versus just "extinct") - to my knowledge ALL captives are the Somali wild ass".

The author of this comment is unknown to me. Stephen Charles Thompson (talk) 07:40, 11 January 2013 (UTC)


 * There are no captive Nubian Wild Asses, the entire captive population within North America and Europe are Somali Wild Asses with a very small population of wild assXDonkey hybrids in the U.S.BronxZooFan (talk) 21:33, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Huge news coming on this sub-species in the near future--DNA testing on wild donkeys in Bonaire has just established that they are a population of Nubian Ass. Hasn't hit the press yet, so I'm not updating the main page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:C5A7:5060:68DC:89CC:DC0F:164A (talk) 13:20, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Where'd you get that information from? That doesn't sound correct and the photo shown on the page are, at the least, hybrids since true wild asses don't have the cross markings on their back.BronxZooFan (talk) 21:33, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Just researched this more and it seems to results are very controversial. The animals were tested only for the purpose of stopping Bonaire from culling them so it's highly possible that the data was biased to begin with. Also, it seems donkeys were only used as a control and thus were not thoroughly tested. Being as modern donkeys descend from two wild ass lineages, Nubian and a currently unknown population distinct from all others, it seems as though the Bonaire weren't tested against a wide enough range of domestic animals to be conclusive in any way. Also, as I stated before, the Bonaire animals exhibit morphological traits found only in donkeys or hybrids. Due to all of this I suggest the information inferring that pure Nubian Wild Asses are alive on Bonaire be taken down or at least properly addressed as being controversial. BronxZooFan (talk) 23:33, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Somali wild asses on a Caribbean Island?
Is there a background on this? Any material how this came to happen? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.35.7.94 (talk) 13:49, 5 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't think this is true. There's no reference for this and I've not seen any information supporting this claim. The animals shown in the photo on the page are hybrids since true wild asses don't have the cross-markings on their backs. BronxZooFan (talk) 21:35, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

IUCN Status
The IUCN has not evaluated Equus africanus down to subspecific level, only the species as a whole. Also, having read the evaluation, they seem to treat the Nubian Wild Ass as an Extinct subspecies. Due to this, there's no justification for listing them as "Critically Endangered, possible Extinct in the Wild" on this page. BronxZooFan (talk) 23:41, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Gebel Elba
This article and several other blindly claim that a wild population of this animal exists in the Gebel Elba National Park. However, I cannot find a trustworthy source for this information. Does anyone have a link to the study which found this or anything? BronxZooFan (talk) 19:47, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

There are pictures in Flickr. Wild Nubian wild asses in Egypt. The cross on the shoulder, there's no doubt about it. It is the Nubian wild ass. --FierceJake754 (talk) 21:23, 27 April 2016 (UTC)


 * As far as I've read, pure wild asses do not exhibit the cross-pattern, it's only present in donkeys and hybrid animals. And even if the cross markings do appear in pure Nubians, since they appear in both taxa and hybridization is known to have occurred (there's at least one captive population of hybrid wild asses and they have the cross markings), the morphology cannot be used to determine their purity, tests must be done. Also, a few Flickr photos unfortunately isn't proof. If you or anyone else can find an actual scientific paper or real evidence that these animals have been tested and proven to be Nubians, then fine. Until then, I can't accept these photos as proof of their existence, especially since the presence of the cross markings puts their purity into question. And as for the IUCN status, the IUCN lists the African wild ass as a species as Critically Endangered. Reading their evaluation, the refer to the Nubian subspecies only in the past tense and that there hasn't been evidence of them since the 1970's. As such, their status should be left as Extinct. BronxZooFan (talk) 02:05, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I will still include the possibility of animals at Gebel Elba and talk further about the Bonaire animals but being as their validity is questionable, I won't be writing their presence as fact. BronxZooFan (talk) 02:05, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Is that so? Where have you read that pure Nubian wild asses do not exhibit the cross pattern on their shoulders?--FierceJake754 (talk) 23:08, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Just did a more extensive search (as there is very little information on their physicality) and you are indeed correct, Nubians do/did exhibit a small cross-pattern (it also seems that the also-Extinct Atlas Wild Ass exhibited this and Nubians also didn't exhibit the leg stripes present in Somalis). I stand corrected. However, the fact still remains that there is no conclusive proof that the animals in Gebel Eba or Bonaire are indeed pure animals. If you can provide any links that prove otherwise, I'd be more than happy to stand down (in fact, I'd love it if they turned out to still be alive!) but as it stands, there's simply not enough evidence to warrant changing their status. From everything I've seen, pure Nubians and wild assXDonkey hybrids look almost identical so photos claiming they're of pure Nubians mean nothing until the animals are extensively tested. If anyone wishes to change the status to "Extinct, possibly still extant" then fine, but their official status, everything else is only a possibility atm. BronxZooFan (talk) 21:10, 29 April 2016 (UTC)