|
|
|
|
|
17 April 2026
|
Meet the ‘firefighting’ donkeys of Spain
Known as Doñana’s Firefighting Donkey Battalion, this unit is responsible for preventing wildfires in parts of Spain—all thanks to their seemingly bottomless appetites. Each summer in Spain, wildfires blaze across the country. Thousands of acres are lost to flames not only due to heat and drought, but also rural abandonment: fewer people, fewer herds, and more vegetation left to grow unchecked.
But some communities have found a solution as ancient as it is effective—bringing back donkeys, which have walked beside humans for over 7,000 years, to take on a new mission of fighting wildfires. These animals work in small brigades, moving silently through forests, pulling up weeds, and chewing on them day after day.
The urgency of that mission has only grown. By August 2025, nearly 1 million acres had burned across various regions in Spain, making it the worst wildfire year in three decades. The magnitude of the crisis led the government to declare disaster zones in Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias, Extremadura, Madrid and Andalusia.
In that context, the slow, deliberate work of these donkeys feels almost radical—a return to ancient rhythms to confront a very modern crisis.
The birthplace of the firefighting donkeys
Since around 2014, 18 donkeys have been patrolling the outskirts of Doñana National Park, all from an association called El Burrito Feliz (The Happy Little Donkey). The group rescues the animals from abandonment and turns them into what its president, Luis Manuel Bejarano, describes as "the best herbivorous firefighters."
Mortadelo, Magallanes, Leonor, Ainoa, and Ume are some of the recruits in Doñana’s Firefighting Donkey Battalion. They follow a tactical plan: patrolling seven hours daily from March through November along mobile firebreak lines marked by fences. Each day, they head to their assigned area, graze a strip about 130 by 50 feet, drink around eight gallons of water, and then return to rest. By the end of the day, they’ve consumed all the flammable material in their designated area and dramatically reduced the risk of fire.
The strategy works. While Spain faces increasingly intense wildfires, Doñana National Park—a crucial refuge for European and African birds, Iberian lynxes, and other at-risk species—has not recorded a single wildfire in nine years. “The firefighting donkeys have become a symbol of efficiency,” says Bejarano.
Their success has even earned them the backing of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), the Spanish corps that responds to fires, floods, and earthquakes when civilian resources are overwhelmed. During a visit to the park, UME soldiers “adopted” one of the donkeys and presented it with a tiny helmet—just like a real forest firefighter’s.
On the ground, the donkeys aren’t alone. They are constantly monitored by volunteers from the environmental group Mujeres por Doñana, who provide field logistics support, carrying water in wheelbarrows through forested areas that can’t be accessed by vehicles.
It sounds like tough work—and it is—but from the donkeys’ perspective, it’s paradise: They eat freely throughout the day, receive care and affection from caretakers and park visitors, and even welcome visitors such as Queen Sofía, who once spent time with Leonor the donkey.
What makes donkeys good firefighters
Unlike cows or sheep, donkeys don’t have a complex stomach, which allows them to chew the same food repeatedly. They eat slowly but often, turning even the driest, roughest grass into energy—a perfect adaptation for surviving in harsh environments. Their simple diet and steady appetite create a cumulative effect: that every branch they chew is less fuel for the next heat wave.
Experts in grazing ecology and ecosystem restoration, such as Rosa María Canals Tresserras, a professor of grassland ecology and restoration at the Public University of Navarre, agree: Donkey grazing reduces the vegetation fuel load and, with it, the spread of fire in landscapes increasingly covered by brush and woody plants.
"Donkeys, for example, were once very common, not as meat animals but as draft animals—for pulling loads, agricultural work and ploughing," Canals explains. "The arrival of tractors, cars, and machinery gradually displaced them. That was their function, and as with many things in life, you only realize their value once they’re gone. "
The absence of donkeys is felt more than ever in other places. In many regions, the loss of large wild herbivores—from woolly mammoths to free-ranging livestock—combined with the decline of traditional grazing, the abandonment of firewood use, and rural depopulation has left landscapes denser and drier, where climate change now acts as a natural accelerant.
Bringing donkeys back to rural areas isn’t just cultural or symbolic but a preventive strategy. As they graze, they create low-fuel belts around villages and help contain fires before they even start.
How other areas are following suit
The success of the Andalusian project has inspired others. In the following years, rural communities across Spain began replicating the idea, adapting it to their own landscapes. In Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia, new brigades emerged, combining environmental conservation with wildfire prevention.
For millennia, the donkey was seen as the symbol of stubbornness. “Horses do things out of obligation. Donkeys do them out of conviction,” says Joan Cedó, who launched the Tivissa Donkeys Firefighters in 2020. What started as a pilot with three donkeys over five acres has grown into the daily work of about 40 animals—all rescued from neglect or abuse—dedicated to clearing over 980 acres of public and private land in the mountainous region of Tarragona, Catalonia.
“A donkey weighs three times as much as a goat, so when it moves, it breaks up vegetation more effectively," says Cedó. "A donkey also eats roughly ten times more than a goat. That means its daily impact is much greater.”
Have they been as effective as their Doñana counterparts? “Since we introduced donkeys in our municipality, there have been no wildfires,” says Cedó. He believes that with more government support, the herd could grow to 300 animals and protect a much wider area.
In Allariz, a town in the Ourense province of northwestern Spain, the donkeys of Asociación Andrea work similarly, maintaining about 2,470 acres of forest within a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The project began in an abandoned village, where the group, in collaboration with the local council, tested a land restoration model: first with manual clearing, then with the help of donkeys that kept the terrain weed-free.
Over time, the effort expanded to the core zone of the reserve. The donkeys roam freely and are tracked by GPS, which alerts caretakers if they stray beyond safe limits. They walk up to 12 miles a day, feeding mainly on low shrubs—the same type of vegetation that causes wildfires.
In all these years, the core area where the donkeys graze hasn’t burned once. “And this year the province of Ourense was devastated," says the association’s president, David Lema. "There had never been records of such extensive fires in this province.”
But Lema adds that while this new firefighting tactic has been successful, the real prevention of wildfires depends on what’s grown in the surrounding environments.
“The real solution lies in land-use planning," he says. "What cannot continue is for communal forest lands to be planted with pyrophytic species like pine or eucalyptus—that guarantees fire. While animals are a valuable tool, they are not the complete solution; they are part of the solution."
Source: National Geographic
But some communities have found a solution as ancient as it is effective—bringing back donkeys, which have walked beside humans for over 7,000 years, to take on a new mission of fighting wildfires. These animals work in small brigades, moving silently through forests, pulling up weeds, and chewing on them day after day.
The urgency of that mission has only grown. By August 2025, nearly 1 million acres had burned across various regions in Spain, making it the worst wildfire year in three decades. The magnitude of the crisis led the government to declare disaster zones in Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias, Extremadura, Madrid and Andalusia.
In that context, the slow, deliberate work of these donkeys feels almost radical—a return to ancient rhythms to confront a very modern crisis.
The birthplace of the firefighting donkeys
Since around 2014, 18 donkeys have been patrolling the outskirts of Doñana National Park, all from an association called El Burrito Feliz (The Happy Little Donkey). The group rescues the animals from abandonment and turns them into what its president, Luis Manuel Bejarano, describes as "the best herbivorous firefighters."
Mortadelo, Magallanes, Leonor, Ainoa, and Ume are some of the recruits in Doñana’s Firefighting Donkey Battalion. They follow a tactical plan: patrolling seven hours daily from March through November along mobile firebreak lines marked by fences. Each day, they head to their assigned area, graze a strip about 130 by 50 feet, drink around eight gallons of water, and then return to rest. By the end of the day, they’ve consumed all the flammable material in their designated area and dramatically reduced the risk of fire.
The strategy works. While Spain faces increasingly intense wildfires, Doñana National Park—a crucial refuge for European and African birds, Iberian lynxes, and other at-risk species—has not recorded a single wildfire in nine years. “The firefighting donkeys have become a symbol of efficiency,” says Bejarano.
Their success has even earned them the backing of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), the Spanish corps that responds to fires, floods, and earthquakes when civilian resources are overwhelmed. During a visit to the park, UME soldiers “adopted” one of the donkeys and presented it with a tiny helmet—just like a real forest firefighter’s.
On the ground, the donkeys aren’t alone. They are constantly monitored by volunteers from the environmental group Mujeres por Doñana, who provide field logistics support, carrying water in wheelbarrows through forested areas that can’t be accessed by vehicles.
It sounds like tough work—and it is—but from the donkeys’ perspective, it’s paradise: They eat freely throughout the day, receive care and affection from caretakers and park visitors, and even welcome visitors such as Queen Sofía, who once spent time with Leonor the donkey.
What makes donkeys good firefighters
Unlike cows or sheep, donkeys don’t have a complex stomach, which allows them to chew the same food repeatedly. They eat slowly but often, turning even the driest, roughest grass into energy—a perfect adaptation for surviving in harsh environments. Their simple diet and steady appetite create a cumulative effect: that every branch they chew is less fuel for the next heat wave.
Experts in grazing ecology and ecosystem restoration, such as Rosa María Canals Tresserras, a professor of grassland ecology and restoration at the Public University of Navarre, agree: Donkey grazing reduces the vegetation fuel load and, with it, the spread of fire in landscapes increasingly covered by brush and woody plants.
"Donkeys, for example, were once very common, not as meat animals but as draft animals—for pulling loads, agricultural work and ploughing," Canals explains. "The arrival of tractors, cars, and machinery gradually displaced them. That was their function, and as with many things in life, you only realize their value once they’re gone. "
The absence of donkeys is felt more than ever in other places. In many regions, the loss of large wild herbivores—from woolly mammoths to free-ranging livestock—combined with the decline of traditional grazing, the abandonment of firewood use, and rural depopulation has left landscapes denser and drier, where climate change now acts as a natural accelerant.
Bringing donkeys back to rural areas isn’t just cultural or symbolic but a preventive strategy. As they graze, they create low-fuel belts around villages and help contain fires before they even start.
How other areas are following suit
The success of the Andalusian project has inspired others. In the following years, rural communities across Spain began replicating the idea, adapting it to their own landscapes. In Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia, new brigades emerged, combining environmental conservation with wildfire prevention.
For millennia, the donkey was seen as the symbol of stubbornness. “Horses do things out of obligation. Donkeys do them out of conviction,” says Joan Cedó, who launched the Tivissa Donkeys Firefighters in 2020. What started as a pilot with three donkeys over five acres has grown into the daily work of about 40 animals—all rescued from neglect or abuse—dedicated to clearing over 980 acres of public and private land in the mountainous region of Tarragona, Catalonia.
“A donkey weighs three times as much as a goat, so when it moves, it breaks up vegetation more effectively," says Cedó. "A donkey also eats roughly ten times more than a goat. That means its daily impact is much greater.”
Have they been as effective as their Doñana counterparts? “Since we introduced donkeys in our municipality, there have been no wildfires,” says Cedó. He believes that with more government support, the herd could grow to 300 animals and protect a much wider area.
In Allariz, a town in the Ourense province of northwestern Spain, the donkeys of Asociación Andrea work similarly, maintaining about 2,470 acres of forest within a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The project began in an abandoned village, where the group, in collaboration with the local council, tested a land restoration model: first with manual clearing, then with the help of donkeys that kept the terrain weed-free.
Over time, the effort expanded to the core zone of the reserve. The donkeys roam freely and are tracked by GPS, which alerts caretakers if they stray beyond safe limits. They walk up to 12 miles a day, feeding mainly on low shrubs—the same type of vegetation that causes wildfires.
In all these years, the core area where the donkeys graze hasn’t burned once. “And this year the province of Ourense was devastated," says the association’s president, David Lema. "There had never been records of such extensive fires in this province.”
But Lema adds that while this new firefighting tactic has been successful, the real prevention of wildfires depends on what’s grown in the surrounding environments.
“The real solution lies in land-use planning," he says. "What cannot continue is for communal forest lands to be planted with pyrophytic species like pine or eucalyptus—that guarantees fire. While animals are a valuable tool, they are not the complete solution; they are part of the solution."
Source: National Geographic
|
|