parent_taxon asinara donkey
Sassari (; ) is an Italian city and the second - largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127 , 525 inhabitants , and a Functional Urban ___MASK3___ of about 222 , 000 inhabitants . One of the oldest cities on the island , it contains a considerable collection of art . Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe . Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea , Italy shares open land borders with France , Switzerland , Austria , Slovenia , San Marino and Vatican City . Italy covers an ___MASK3___ of and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate ; due to its shape , it is often referred to in Italy as " lo Stivale " ( the Boot ). With 61 million inhabitants , it is the fourth most populous EU member state . The donkey or ass (" ___MASK49___ africanus asinus ") is a domesticated member of the horse family , Equidae . The wild ancestor of the donkey is the ___MASK89___ , " E . africanus ". The donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years . There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world , mostly in underdeveloped countries , where they are used principally as draught or pack animals . Working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence levels . Small numbers of donkeys are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries . Asinara is an Italian island of in ___MASK3___ . The name is Italian for " donkey - inhabited ", but it is thought to derive from the Latin " sinuaria ", and meaning sinus - shaped . The island is virtually uninhabited . The census of population of 2001 lists one man . The island is located off the north - western tip of Sardinia , and is mountainous in geography with steep , rocky coasts . Because fresh water is scarce , trees are sparse and low scrub is the predominant vegetation . Part of the national parks system of Italy , the island was recently converted to a wildlife and marine preserve . It is home to a population of wild Albino donkeys from which the island may take its name . The ___MASK89___ or African wild donkey (" Equus africanus ") is a wild member of the horse family , Equidae . This species is believed to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey , which is usually placed within the same species . They live in the deserts and other arid areas of the Horn of Africa , in Eritrea , Ethiopia and Somalia . It formerly had a wider range north and west into Sudan , Egypt , and Libya . About 570 individuals exist in the wild . The Province of Sassari is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy . Its capital is the city of Sassari . As of 2014 , the province had a population of 334 , 413 people . ___MASK73___ ( sometimes known as the horse family ) is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals , including the extant horses , donkeys , and zebras , and many other species known only from fossils . All extant species are in the genus " ___MASK49___ ". ___MASK73___ belongs to the order Perissodactyla , which includes the extant tapirs and rhinoceros , and several extinct families . The Asinara donkey , Italian : Asino dell ' Asinara ( Italian pronunciation : ( azino dellazinara ) ) , is a breed of feral donkey indigenous to the island of Asinara , which lies off the north - west coast of Sardinia , Italy , in the province of Sassari . Most of the population is wholly or partly albinistic ; the small number of grey donkeys on the island are also considered part of the population , and are probably heterozygous carriers of the albino gene . The Asinara donkey is one of the eight autochthonous donkey breeds of limited distribution recognised by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali , the Italian ministry of agriculture and forestry . It is called ainu , borricu or molenti in Sardinian . There are approximately 120 individuals on the island . Others are in the natural reserve of Porto Conte in Alghero and at the Istituto di Incremento Ippico at Foresta Burgos , and a few are raised in Tuscany and in Emilia Romagna .