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Feral Donkeys on the Caribbean Island of St. John
I was shocked when they meandered out of the island’s tropical forest
Since coming to the Caribbean in 2023, I heard of the feral animal populations that call the USVI’s their home. These include hens, roosters, cats, mongoose, and donkeys — yes, donkeys.
The smaller animals are plain enough to recognize but donkeys? Where are they, and more importantly, why are they here?
The Caribbean Islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, were under Danish rule from the early 1600s until 1917. The United States Virgin Islands — as they became known — were purchased on December 17th, 1917.
Each island has a history of being conquered and taken over by different countries until its combined purchase by the United States in 1917. The countries that previously acquired the islands lend a diverse cultural heritage to them.
The donkeys arrived when St. John was under Danish control, two centuries before the islands became part of the United States. Donkeys were brought here to provide transportation and assist in hauling goods up the steep mountainous terrain.
Once the sugarcane plantations developed on St. John, and they developed quickly — 109 plantations developed between 1717 and 1733 — the donkeys were also used, along with imported African Slaves, to aid the Danes with the farming and transport of the products — the largest of which was sugarcane.
See the National Park webpage for an interesting timeline of the island of St. John.
Economic factors such as the emancipation of slaves and the demise of sugar cane production in the mid-1800s, left the donkeys without purpose. They were freed into the wild on St. John as the plantation owners left the island.
Thus, today, there are feral donkeys — descendants of those left from the sugar cane plantation days that live and roam in the lush vegetation of St. John.
The seemingly gentle animals visit the beach and can be seen crossing the roads. But they are wild —…
