There's An Arizona City Where Donkeys Rule The Town, Including This Baby Taking A Nap In Road

Feb 03, 2019 by apost team

We’ve all heard the familiar saying “it’s gone to the dogs” but, in this case, it might be more appropriate to say “it’s gone to the donkeys”! That’s right, in a little town in Oatman, Arizona things truly have gone the way of the donkey with the adorable creatures have taken over the entire town.

It all started when Oatman was a mining town and people would use donkeys to pack things throughout the area. When the mines shut down and the miners began to leave town, they simply released their donkeys to stay behind. Rather than run away or get killed by wild animals, the donkeys took it as an opportunity to take over the town!

Even now, a trip through Oatman makes it possible to see descendants of the mining donkeys roaming freely across the streets and throughout the surrounding areas. Rather than being shy or skittish, they are very social animals and are happy to make friends with visitors.

apost.com

These survivors who managed to learn to live off of the Arizona land without the help of humans are now a leading tourist attraction in Oatman. People travel from miles away to see the town run by donkeys and perhaps pet one of the free-range creatures. While people are fine petting the donkeys, the Bureau of Land Management is now enforcing a no-feed policy and will give a hefty fine to anyone trying to give the animals a little snack.

In Oatman, the donkeys don’t watch out for people; instead, people have to watch out for donkeys! These adorable, gray animals consider themselves to be the stars of the show and will take over where they want.

Recently, an Oatman gift shop called “New Digg’ns” took to the social media to post an adorable video of a wild baby donkey who chose to take a nap right in the middle of the road! The sweet sleepy-head has been called “Opal” and the gift shop owners commented about her being “dang cute” as she napped on Route 66.

Opal isn’t the first baby donkey to use the road for a nap. Last year visitors mistakenly thought a sleeping baby donkey had been hit on the road and were visibly shaken when they decided she was dead. What a surprise to realize that the donkey was only taking a nap!

What do you think about this little baby donkey? Do you think he's as cute as we do? Let us know - and make sure to pass this along to your friends and family -  baby donkeys make everything better!