Rescued Donkeys Keep Spanish National Park Fire-Free 9 Years

While wildfires consumed nearly one million hectares across Spain in 2025, one major national park hasn't burned in nine years thanks to an unlikely team of firefighters with four legs and a serious appetite.

Doñana National Park, one of Europe's most important wetland ecosystems, has stayed fire-free since 2014 when 18 rescued donkeys started grazing its perimeter. The animals eat dense, dry scrub that accumulates along forest edges and roadsides, the exact vegetation that carries flames across landscapes.

The donkeys work year-round from March through November, clearing strips about 131 by 49 feet daily. While cows and sheep stick to tender grass, donkeys evolved to survive on rough, dry forage that other livestock ignore, making them perfect for clearing fire fuel.

Luis Manuel Bejarano, president of El Burrito Feliz (The Happy Donkey), calls them "herbivorous firefighters." The rescued animals, with names like Mortadelo, Magallanes, Leonor, and Ainoa, perform unglamorous but relentless work that reaches terrain where vehicles cannot go.

Rosa María Canals, an ecology professor at the Public University of Navarre, explains that donkey grazing reduces vegetation density without requiring equipment, fuel, or road access. The clearing happens continuously, precisely where it's needed most.

Spain's fire crisis stems from decades of rural depopulation and abandoned traditional grazing. Agricultural mechanization replaced the animals that had been clearing scrub for centuries, letting dry vegetation accumulate into the fuel feeding today's disasters.

The Ripple Effect

The success at Doñana caught attention fast. Spain's Military Emergency Unit visited the park and symbolically adopted one of the donkeys.

In Tivissa, Tarragona, the Burros Bomberos project launched in 2020 with three animals and has grown to around 40 donkeys clearing nearly 988 acres. No fires have occurred there since the program began.

In Allariz, Orense, GPS-equipped donkeys maintain roughly 2,471 acres within a biosphere reserve, covering up to 12 miles daily. Similar programs have spread to Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country, combining fire prevention with rural regeneration while giving rescued animals purpose.

The programs cost a fraction of mechanical clearing while creating jobs in depopulated areas. Volunteers from groups like Mujeres por Doñana bring water to the animals and supervise their work in remote terrain.

Program leaders are clear that donkeys aren't a complete answer on their own. Forest planning, land management, and reducing flammable monocultures like pine and eucalyptus plantations all remain essential.

But as one solution in a broader strategy, the results speak volumes. Spain's landscape was shaped over millennia by grazing animals, and bringing them back may be one of the most effective tools available for protecting it now.