As wildfires rage across North America and southern Europe, an unlikely firefighting force is helping prevent devastating blazes in Spain’s Catalan countryside: a herd of rescue donkeys.
Tivissa Donkeys Firefighters, a Catalan charity, has taken fire management into its own hands by rescuing abandoned and neglected donkeys, offering veterinary care, and providing space for the animals to graze and roam freely as part of a herd.
The organization’s “donkey brigade” also assists with sustainable forest management by grazing on flammable undergrowth, which helps prevent fires and aids in fire-extinguishing efforts.
Spain has had about 114,796 hectares of forest burn since the start of 2026 through to July 24, according to data from its Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), but animals have proven to be an effective tool for creating natural firebreaks by grazing on dry vegetation that fuels fast-moving fires.
Canada is also facing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with nearly 800 active fires according to the federal government’s July update and some 3.45 million acres scorched. It has also deployed grazing animals as a means of fire prevention in the past.
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The use of grazing animals has proven effective in parts of Europe, according to the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, and is bolstered by widely used high-tech strategies, including satellite monitoring and drones to track the spread, as well as aerial firefighting tools and systems to predict the path of active blazes.
Despite being a lesser-used tactic domestically, grazing animals have long been deployed as a traditional tool for fire prevention, especially in the Mediterranean, where dense dry brush and vegetation — a natural fuel for fires — abounds.
“The forests provide them with food and they thank them by protecting the space from possible fires,” the Tivissa Donkeys Firefighters website says.
The non-profit’s founder, Joan Cedó Sans, began rescuing donkeys in 2020 and now has a herd of more than 60, half of whom are members of the fire brigade. The members are named and listed on the organization’s website.
Among them is Roberto, a former racing donkey, who is described as having a “calm and peaceful character,” and Nelson, who shows “a great protective but also dominant character,” and Eleanor, who is “adapting” and “in no time will be an excellent firefighter.”
“We’re grateful for the animals that we feel deserve a second opportunity,” Cedó told CNN in an interview.
Cedó first used donkeys to help clear land he owned that was scorched by fires in 2013, telling the U.S. news agency that they “ate everything,” which led to the full-scale donkey-led operation active in the region.
The arrangement is mutually beneficial, Cedó added, explaining that it provides the donkeys with a dignified life and a sustainable solution to wildfire prevention.
Research shows that while the risk of fires can’t be eliminated, grazing can reduce the rate at which fires spread and make them easier to control and extinguish.
“Management of overstory composition and structure, understory vegetation, and grazing can reduce fuel loads and potential wildfire risk,” according to an article published in the Scientific Reports Journal.
The technique should be used in conjunction with other strategies, such as mechanical thinning and pruning of biomass and controlled burning of land carried out by specialized personnel, forestry engineer and professor Jose Vicente Oliver told Reuters.
Scientists have linked increasingly severe wildfire seasons across southern Europe to climate change. Spain, the third-most forested country in Europe, has registered average temperatures 5.6 C above 1961-1990 levels in July so far, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor.
— with files from Reuters
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