Off Sardinia's northwest coast lies Asinara, a small island whose human history was cut short more than a century ago, leaving behind an unusual population of donkeys that would later become one of the more striking case studies in animal genetics. The decree that depopulated the island was signed in 1885 by the Kingdom of Italy. Approximately 500 people, who lived on the territory in family units of 45 to 54 households, had to give up their houses and land because of the construction of a quarantine lazaretto and an agricultural penal colony on the island, as reported by ISPRA’s Quaderni Ricerca Marina. Most of the displaced families resettled on the Sardinian mainland, founding the village of Stintino. Left behind, however, were the Sardinian donkeys the shepherds had used as working animals; isolated on an island of approximately 50 square kilometers, the animals turned feral, a history documented by Utzeri and colleagues in their 2016 genetic study of the population.
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