Mary Donkey

Mary and Ashkhabad regions of Turkmenistan breed the Mary breed of large donkeys. They are also known as Maryiskaya and Merv. The height of individual specimens reaches 130 - 142cm. Their origin and economic features are similar to the Iranian Hamadan whose descendants can also be encountered in Azerbaijan. In regions where Mary donkeys are bred large, typical specimens - males 119-120cm at the withers, females 116-118cm - coexist with smaller ones, hardly different from the Uzbek variety.

The hybridization experiments of the National Horse Breeding Research Institute involved these animals and heavy draft mares to produced draft-pack and pack-transport mules. The latter type, out of dams of the Lokai breed, were successfully tested in Tajikistan. Along a difficult 90-km route up to an altitude of 3000m the speed of the animals was 6.3 km per hour. Practical mule breeding showed that the pack mule should not be very large, as in the mountains balance and efficient movement are of the utmost importance. A shorter pace reduces the swinging of the pack and provides for steady movement on poor paths. In the Nagorny Karabakh autonomous regions of the Azerbaijan, mules with a live weight of nearly 300 kg carry packs of 70-125 kg, causing expeditions and mountain rescue parties to require only a small number of animals.

The Mary breed and a number of local varieties occupy a rather limited area, with the Mary breed comprising discrete "island" populations of diminishing number. The stock is declining due to low profitability of donkey breeding and the related mule production.