Wild Burros (Donkeys) are a ubiquitous part of the Inland Empire's landscape - roaming the hills and wandering on UCR's campus. However, we don't know much about them.
Our research is focused on answering several questions about the local burros:
- How many burros are there? Population estimates range from 100 to 1,000, but there are no official counts. Using a network of wildlife cameras and population modeling we hope to provide a better idea of how many burros there are and how fast their population is growing. We are hoping to use develop facial recognition software to ID individual burros.
- Where did the burros come from? There are many tales about the origins of the burros - the goldrush, ranchers - but we don't really know. Using genetic analysis we will determine where our Burros came from and how much genetic variation there is in our population.
- What impact are the Burros having on our local ecosystem? Burros are cute, but they also are causing erosion in our hills. They also seem to eat invasive grasses. Are they are net positive or negative on our ecosystem? We hope to answer this question in the future.
- Where do the Burros roam? We hope to one day place GPS collars on some of the Burros to see where they go (don't worry it doesn't hurt them).
Watch this VIDEO to learn more about our research.
This is a grassroots effort. Please consider DONATING to help fund our research.
Learn more about the history of the Burros in this ARTICLE.