Saw my first Burros

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pneuby

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Messages
1,388
Location
Phoenix
Driving last night, just north of Anthem Blvd along the west side of the 17.
Saw five down grazing in a green belt at a residential corner. Then, saw a half-dozen along the road in back of a commercial plaza. Really cool!

I know they get hit and killed from time-to-time. However, these groups seemed to have a healthy fear of the headlamps, or the car, itself. That latter group were clearly hustling to stay at the outer range of my headlamps at normal neighborhood speed.

Yes, I was too dense to get some pictures. :think:
 
I have seen plenty in the wild, but never in developed areas. I guess we are infringing on their habitat.
 
I'm used to seeing them when we go shooting up north. Sometimes they'll come up to you and beg for food, and then they're hard to shoo away when you want to shoot.


Have a great, gun carryin', Kenpo day

Clyde
 
They are driven by desire for food, like most animals. The lush landscaping is a tasty buffet for them. Also water is much more available in proximity to humans.

There have been herds of them out here near and west of Lake Pleasant for decades and are commonly seen out this way. A friend who lives near the junction of the US60 and AZ74 actually has adopted and slightly domesticated several at his guest ranch. Other wild burros stray into his area attracted by his own small trio, and in turn, they often escape and wander off with the wild ones for days or weeks at a time, but ultimately return because life is easy at the corral.

(His female burro, Nacho, became pregnant and gave birth earlier this year. They of course named the little one Burrito.)

Burrito in the house.jpg
 
I had one bust out of the brush less than 10 ft from me while deer hunting off the 60 in wickenburg...scared the living sh#%!!! Out of me..I thought a big buck was coming out!!!.. lol!..I'll never forget that. I sat down for 20 minutes to gather myself :clap:
 
Took a little jaunt this afternoon out in my playground south of AZ74 north of WhiteWing Rd. near Paddleford Wash. Peoria has tried to fence it off to keep folks out, but I've been roaming that area for over 20 years, and I know where the fences are not. But since there is much reduced human traffic out there compared to years past, I no longer have to compete with other folks out there looking for remote spots to do some shooting or just camp or cruise the sandy washes. There have always been wild burros loose in the area, and I've seen them before. But they usually were at a distance and stayed away from people. But as I was driving my little 2-seater UTV down a trail, suddenly there was a small herd of 7 of them, with 3 being juveniles less than a year old, smack dab in the trail. I expected them to run off before I could whip out my phone to take a picture. But they stood still and just looked at me, wondering what I was gonna do.
I guess their lack of interaction with people these days compared to years past leaves them not as spooked by us. They didn't move until I very slowly at a crawl attempted to drive right through them and continue on the trail. They only stepped a short distance away to clear my path,...just far enough I couldn't touch them. I was tempted to stop and take more photos, but I figured doing so would make them finally depart. So I just slowly continued on.
As I drove around the well-worn trails, I kept spotting piles of donkey poo. So it seems they feel at home in this area and don't roam far. There are homes within a couple miles that have landscaping featuring succulent greenery tasty to burros and fountains to drink from. They are enjoying a nice little refuge in my playground, so I will respect them and do my best to ensure they are not antagonized.


jHZiSVx.jpg
 
If you head over to Oatman you can see a lot of em that are still wild but also had fed by tourists.

Great little town. Clark Gable stayed there for his honeymoon.
 
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