Riverside wild – UC Riverside scientists are launching a study on the Inland Empire’s wild donkey population, hoping to resolve years of community tension and safety concerns.
For students at UC Riverside. the fall semester brings a familiar routine: grabbing a syllabus. meeting friends. and taking selfies with the wild donkeys that frequently wander campus. To them, the animals are unofficial mascots, celebrated through Reddit threads and campus store plushies. But just beyond the university’s well-irrigated lawns. the reality of living alongside these 500-pound animals is often far more volatile.
While residents in the Inland Empire share a deep connection to the burros. the relationship is frayed by fears of car accidents. property damage. and the inherent danger of close encounters. That friction reached a breaking point last year when a plan by San Bernardino County to relocate hundreds of donkeys to a Texas sanctuary triggered such intense community outrage—including death threats against the nonprofit’s leader—that officials were forced to abandon the agreement. The situation turned darker this year after a series of unsolved attacks in which at least half a dozen donkeys were shot with arrows.
Despite the passion and violence surrounding the herd, the animals remain a mystery. Experts lack basic data on how many donkeys live in the Inland Empire. whether their numbers are rising. or how they interact with the local environment. UC Riverside associate professor Marko Spasojevic is now leading a research team to bridge that knowledge gap. hoping that data can replace the current climate of conflict with a plan for coexistence.
Spasojevic and his colleagues, Ellie Armstrong and Kieran Samuk, have begun the process of mapping the herd’s behavior. Graduate student Wyatt Hall is currently deploying motion-activated cameras across the Box Springs Mountain Reserve and surrounding areas in Riverside. Loma Linda. and Moreno Valley to establish a precise population count. The researchers hope to understand the donkeys’ migration patterns. specifically why they descend from the hills to seek shade in parking structures or graze on campus as vegetation dries during the summer and fall.
Their work extends beyond counting heads. Spasojevic suspects the burros might actually benefit the local landscape by consuming non-native grasses. though he remains wary of the soil erosion caused by their established mountain trails. The team plans to analyze fecal samples to confirm these feeding habits and hopes to eventually secure funding for GPS collars to track individual movements.
“Donkeys are very strong animals; they bite, they kick,” Spasojevic said. “We want to avoid those conflicts by better understanding where they go, what resources they need and ideally help Riverside County take care of these populations.”
Genetic testing is also underway to solve the local mystery of the herd’s history. While donkeys originated in eastern Africa over 5. 000 years ago and were brought to California by Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza in the 1770s. the specific lineage of the Inland Empire’s current population remains speculative. Theories range from animals abandoned by gold rush miners to a herd driven over from Death Valley by ranchers in the 1950s. By comparing DNA samples, the team hopes to finally settle the debate.
Until the science catches up, the campus community remains in a state of cautious observation. Students are repeatedly warned to keep their distance. avoid feeding the animals. and slow down while driving to prevent the fatal collisions that pose a constant threat to both humans and the donkeys. As residential development encroaches further into the Inland Empire’s hillside. the window for finding a peaceful path forward is narrowing. with population data expected to guide future infrastructure. such as potential wildlife overpasses or physical barriers.
Riverside wild donkeys UC Riverside Inland Empire animal research burros