Dooble donkeys1/3/2023 Though they have space to run, they tend to move at a slow, cautious pace, and the refuge at times feels like a senior living community. Step into their enclosure and a bunch will quickly surround you on all sides and just stay there - not begging for food but apparently eager for human contact. They never lack clean water, they eat copious amounts of hay and they receive a level of care they wouldn’t dream of on the range. These donkeys don’t seem to mind the change. FALLON (2) The majority of the 200 or so burros in Chontos’ sanctuary were removed from Death Valley National Park (right). (1) Diana Chontos runs the Wild Burro Rescue sanctuary in Olancha, California (left). Many ended up in sanctuaries like this one, Diana Chontos’ Wild Burro Rescue. “They’re just not appropriate for the park.” And so as early as the 1930s, park managers started rounding up, trapping and occasionally shooting burros. “They have impacts that are not acceptable,” said Linda Manning, a wildlife biologist at Death Valley. Park officials say they take a huge toll on the park’s ecosystem because they consume large amounts of vegetation and hog the water that vulnerable native species need to survive the harsh climate. There, in several corrals overlooking Owens Valley and the Panamint Range, you’ll find dozens of burros that used to roam the arid mountains surrounding Death Valley. To see Death Valley National Park’s largest animal, your best bet is to head west on California state Route 190, exit the park, drive 25 miles to the small town of Olancha, and then take a meandering dirt road through cattle pastures toward the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
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