The Weight of Forgotten Royalty : The Ancient Somali Wild Ass

Somali Wild Ass - Titled "Attitude" printed at 36x56 in Available in prints as small as 12x18

Okay, I have to tell you about this animal.

I was on the Safari Tram at San Diego Zoo Safari Park — you know how it goes, you're rolling through, snapping pictures of the obvious things — when something caught my eye that almost didn't. A shade structure. And beneath it, a few animals the color of the dust around them, so perfectly camouflaged I nearly looked right past.

But one of them turned. Looked directly at me. Held my gaze just long enough to make me feel like I'd been specifically chosen.

I raised my camera. He posed. And I went home thinking I'd photographed a really handsome donkey.

Spoiler: he is emphatically not just a donkey.

Here's the Part That Made Me Stop Scrolling My Own Research

Every donkey alive today — every single one — descends from this animal. The Somali Wild Ass is the original. The ancestor. The one that started the whole line.

And here's where it gets genuinely remarkable: around 5,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians domesticated his ancestors and used them to build trade routes across Africa. Their bones have been found buried with pharaohs — not discarded, not forgotten, but carefully entombed. Like companions. Like animals that mattered.

One researcher called them "the steam engines of the ancient world." The turquoise in Egyptian jewelry? Moved on backs like his. The grain that fed early cities? Him. The supply chains that stitched ancient civilizations together? Powered by this animal that most of us walk past at the zoo without a second glance.

Sultans once cut off the hand of anyone who killed one.

Let that land for a second.

And Then the Plot Twist

There are maybe 200 of them left in the wild.

Not 200,000. Not 2,000. Two hundred. Possibly fewer — no one can get an accurate count because they live in some of the most remote, conflict-affected terrain on Earth.

While their domesticated descendants number in the tens of millions worldwide, the original — the wild one, the real one — is nearly gone. The Nubian Wild Ass, the Somali's closest relative and fellow ancestor of the donkey, is almost certainly already extinct.

Vanished. Done.

And most people have never heard of either of them.

So I Made Him a Portrait

When I got home and sat with the photograph, I knew a straight edit wasn't going to cut it. This animal deserved more than a nice wildlife shot.

I built the painting around everything I'd learned. The background is warm, textured, old-masters — the kind of backdrop you'd find behind someone a Renaissance painter considered worth remembering. Because he is. The geometric ring behind his head is my version of a halo — not religious, just a quiet insistence that you pay attention to what's in front of you.

He already had the posture. That upright black mane. Those long, radar-dish ears. The gaze that doesn't ask permission.

I just gave him the frame he was owed.

If you're anywhere near San Diego, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, or Boston — you can actually go see one. They're rare enough that it's worth the trip specifically.

Where to See The Somali Wild Ass

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Dallas Zoo

Saint Louis Zoo

Zoo Miami

Denver Zoo

White Oak Conservation

Franklin Park Zoo (Boston, MA)

Zoo Basel (Switzerland)

Réserve Africaine de Sigean (southern France)

Knowsley Safari Park (United Kingdom)

Woburn Safari Park (United Kingdom)

Safari Park Dvůr Králové (Czech Republic)

Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve (Israel)

And if this portrait is speaking to you the way he spoke to me on that tram, he's available as a fine art print in my shop. Some animals just deserve a place on the wall.

→ View the print

Because some stories are simply worth telling.