Donkey that disappeared 5 years ago spotted with elk herd 'living his best life'

[SorellaLaBefana]

...in Northern California’s Cache Creek Wilderness where Diesel disappeared according to CBS News. The family had been on a hike with Diesel when something spooked the donkey, and he ran away. The couple searched for weeks – even using drone equipment to find him, but never had any luck...

...video which showed the donkey standing around a herd of elk looking very comfortable and definitely a part of the herd. For a moment the entire herd, including the donkey, stare at the camera and then trot away...

...As for future plans, we haven’t received any news to the contrary, but ['owner'] did state Diesel is happy, seems healthy, and “he’s living his best life” ...

https://petrescuereport.com/2024/donkey-that-disappeared-5-years-ago-spotted-with-elk-herd-living-his-best-life/

Back-in-the-day donkeys were used as guard animals on farms and ranches, so herding with these elk is not much of a stretch in donkey behaviour.

[NBachers]

1. I salute this donkey

[SCantiGOP]

30. If Trump wins in November

I’m going to be looking for an elk or moose herd to join. I just hope the herd will let a jackass like me in 🫣

[2naSalit]

2. Lucky!

[orwell]

3. That is a few miles...

...from where I live. There are always elk herds around there.

I'm sure Diesel is very happy with his pack. They surely will protect him.

BTW...The elk are magnificent.

[calikid]

10. It's a few miles from me too! n/t

[blm]

11. This is DU and we want you to go take photos and post

them here.
😁

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

23. Me too... I'm VERY familiar with that area. So, he's STILL with what looks like his Roosevelt Elk tribe Family.

I read a local article that implied he had been returned to his humans. Well, may he live happily and even better than his best life.

[LymphocyteLover]

4. so cute!

[58Sunliner]

5. That's amazing. He looks right at home and reads the cues from his herd.

[dweller]

6. Guard Donkey ! Good job Donkey !

✌🏻

[Girard442]

15. "I'm a steed! She called me a steed!"

[Big Blue Marble]

7. My sister in Idaho has seen this too.

She has large herds of elk often visit her property and in the last three years they
are accompanied by a feral donkey that had escaped his owner (who did not want him)
and now lives the free life in the wild.

She sent me a picture this spring; he looks great; wintered well and
is thriving.

[ailsagirl]

18. Isn't that interesting!!

[Katcat]

8. They still do

Use donkeys in areas with predators. Here in SWV where I live almost every cattle farm has a donkey or two living with the herd.

[sanatanadharma]

9. Conscious-being hanging out without concern for otherness

Conscious-being hanging out without concern for otherness.
No need to be different.
No need to reject difference.

[mahina]

29. None of us can see ourselves really

But this particular donkey doesn’t have a mirror and I think it is all very sweet

[Ford_Prefect]

12. Imagine that. A democrat finding a natural home among the Elk. It is indeed a big tent.

[Marcuse]

21. Dem working to influence the "officially non political" Protective and Benevolent Order of Elks.

Throughout its history, charges of discrimination have plagued the lodge. Thirty years ago, the lodge came under fire from the Department of Justice when it refused to allow an 8-year-old African American boy to play on a lodge-sponsored little league football team. Critics charged that the discrimination was unacceptable when civic associations like the Elks Club reap hefty state and federal tax benefits on the theory that their benevolence programs — like the little league teams — provide value to the community at large.

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/elks-club-history-discrimination-no-place-county-sponsored-banquet-says-aclu-maryland

[Ford_Prefect]

22. Well, I can see its about time for someone to step up and lead them to better pastures.

[Beartracks]

13. He's with the cool kids.

[ailsagirl]

17. Donkeys are pretty darn cool themselves

[applegrove]

14. The elk are lucky to have him as a protector.

The coyotes will not know what hit them when his back legs get kicking.

[ailsagirl]

16. Thank you for posting!!

Made my day

[swimboy]

19. Livin' his best life!

Cheers!

[Warpy]

20. Sometimes the best you can do for furry friends is walk away

The World's Stupidest Tomcat (TM) disappeared one day. I don't think he got chased off or ran away, I think he just wandered a little farther than usual and couldn't find his way back. Yes, he was that dumb.

A year and a half later, I spotted him several streets away, sporting a shiny red collar. He'd obviously found people who loved him and cared for him, so I just moved on. It was nice to have closure, that he'd found a good home. I wasn't going to disturb that.

[KT2000]

27. Three of my cats

were neighbors' cats who moved in with me. I did not entice them or give them food. I just finally let them inside when the weather was really bad. I guess I have a reputation in the neighborhood, but all of the cats were required to live outside. Here, they run the house.

[SorellaLaBefana]

24. Wow! Had no idea this would resonate with so many as much as it did with me :)

Here is a nice discussion of Guard Donkeys. Not explicitly mentioned is the fact that the donkeys apparently get much satisfaction from looking after other herd critters

Coyotes and dogs had been a major problem at the University of Rhode Island’s Peckham Farm, home to a prize-winning flock of Dorset sheep. Then the university bought Bonnie, a guard donkey.

She came to the URI campus in December 2003 after a pack of dogs had attacked the sheep. Of the 26 ewes in the flock then, 17 suffered severe puncture wounds. One was killed, and six were badly injured, including one so seriously hurt she had to be euthanized a few weeks later.

Since the guard donkey’s arrival, the university has not lost a single animal, says Dave Marshall, Peckham Farm manager, so the school acquired a second guard donkey, named Dee...

...Donkeys are very sociable animals, though, so many think that in order to effectively do their jobs, they need to work alone. Farmers worry that if the donkeys are allowed to mix with cattle, horses or other donkeys, then the sheep will be ignored. At Beltane Farm, however, Tubey had to buy a pony to be a calming companion for his donkey, a common and sound solution for donkeys that can seem to be stressed...

https://www.hobbyfarms.com/protect-your-flock-with-guard-donkeys-2/

[twodogsbarking]

25. Elk like a little ass.

[Blue Owl]

26. Hey sometimes you just gotta be an ass!

[cab67]

28. far closer to "rewilding" than mustangs.

A lot of people look at mustangs and think they're filling the ecological role previously held by native North American horses that died out around 10,000 years ago.

Two problems with that. First - the area where mustangs currently run was very different 10,000 years ago. It wasn't nearly as dry, and different vegetation grew there.

But more importantly, native horses didn't look anything like mustangs. They were smaller and stockier. They'd have looked more like a modern steppe or Przewalski's horses - or, for that matter, more like a donkey - than anything descended from domesticated horses.

Not saying mustangs should be cleared out as an invasive species, but they're not replacing anything.

[PortTack]

31. They probably accepted him as a distant cousin with funny ears and too long a tail!