The reason for the extinction of spotted donkeys (the result of scientists' speculation)

Spotted donkey was once considered a subspecies of grassland zebra. Some researchers have raised the question: When and how did the spotted donkey get rid of horses, zebras and donkeys? To this end, they compared the genetic genes, coat color and habits of existing zebras with those of related extinct species. The analysis of mitochondrial DNA biomarkers of 13 museum specimens (including the only bone sample provided by Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale University) shows that the spotted donkey began to leave the zebra population on the plain during the ice age from120,000 to 290,000 years ago. These analysis results show that the spotted donkey broke away from the grassland zebra population and became an independent and completely different species, and its appearance and coat color began to evolve rapidly.

Spotted donkey has always been the main hunting target of Africans because of its delicious meat and high meat yield, but the original hunting method has not dealt a fatal blow to spotted donkey population.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 0/9th century, the arrival of Europeans threatened the survival of the spotted donkey. Europeans don't like to eat spotted donkey meat as locals do, but take a fancy to the bright fur of spotted donkey. They hunted a large number of spotted donkeys, skinned them and sent them back to the European market for sale. At that time, Europeans were very interested in seeing such beautiful animals, so many people bought spotted donkey specimens, which were expensive for a while. Driven by interests, more people came to Africa to hunt spotted donkeys, which further greatly reduced the number of spotted donkeys.

By the 1970s of 19, there were few spotted donkeys left. At this time, Europeans caught live spotted donkeys, moved to Europe and tried to raise them artificially. By 1880, people have been unable to catch wild spotted donkeys, and live spotted donkeys shipped to Europe have died one after another because they have not adapted to the living environment.

Therefore, the extinction of the spotted donkey is considered to be the result of human hunting.