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Island Donkeys
Formerly the backbone of St. Helena transport
Skip to: History A New Beginning?
History
For many years before the arrival of the motor car donkeys were the mainstay of St. Helena transport. Nobody knows how many there were in their heyday (or should that be hay day?) but they show up in many of the earliest pictures of the island and continue to appear well into the 1970s. The photo on the right was taken in 1968.
There are still a few who prefer donkeys as their means of goods transport, and it is not yet uncommon to meet someone leading a donkey laden with freshly cut vegetation on its way home.
Those donkeys that no longer work a mostly kept in the Casons area, though some feral donkeys have elected to live in the almost appropriate area of Horse Pasture. The donkeys are generally friendly and approachable. The one below was photographed enjoying the early morning sunshine.
A New Beginning?
In January 2011 The St. Helena National Trust announced that nine of the island's donkeys will now be employed in ‘the old fashioned way’, carrying endemic plants and other equipment up to High Peak and Blue Point as part of the Darwin Project.
Donkeys at work in Jamestown, in the 1950s{1}
Jodie Mills, Darwin Project Manager, says:
"For thousands of years donkeys have been the 'helping hooves' of humankind and Donkeys have been used on St. Helena for centuries to carry wood, flax and feed and it will be great to see them being used for work again and perhaps even for the tourist industry to take picnics on walks. The photo below shows what the well dressed donkey wore to town in the 1950’s"{1}
The Darwin Project's aims include conserving some of the most precious habitats on the island and establishing a new conservation apprenticeship scheme, running for three years from October 2010.
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{1} photograph courtesy of Nick Thorpe