Donkey senses

Hearing

• Considered to be similar to the horse.
• But the donkey’s large ears have an added sound-gathering advantage.
• Like the horse, the donkey has the ability to move its ears to locate the source of the sound.
• Donkeys DO NOT like their ears pulled – their ears are very personal!
• The feral donkey is a very alert animal, aided by its acute hearing. 

Smell

• The donkey’s sense of smell is considered to be similar to the horse.
• Donkeys greet each other by smelling and blowing in each other’s noses.  The smell of breath imparts important information to the donkey.
• So greeting donkeys by blowing up their noses is an effective way to reassure them that you are friendly. 

Sight

• Sight is not as good as the horse, and like the horse, they have a blind spot immediately in front of the nose and behind the head.
• They have good peripheral vision with their head down when grazing, but poor ability to see high objects.
• They have good binocular vision.  Donkeys like the horse view any threats with their binocular vision.
• It is thought they have the same colour vision as the horse.  They can clearly differentiate between the major colours.
• Donkeys don’t seem to bother with direct eye contact.  It seems to be less important than in horses. 

Taste

• Donkeys have a very sweet tooth and are very partial to fruit.
• They love walnuts and will crack them and spit out the shells.
• Like the horse, they will not eat musty feed, and will not eat out of dirty containers so their ability to smell must be acute. 

Donkey’s gait

• Donkeys are naturally slow movers and impatient humans find this frustrating.
• They do not show all the varied gaits of the horse.
• At speed, they move like a zebra or a sheep in a bouncy gait and appear to have all four feet off the ground at the same time.