Although Namibia is one of the most sparsely populated nations on earth, 90 of its people die every year in crashes involving donkeys — usually when the animals fall asleep on warm tarmac roads at night.
Now a British firm has come up with a solution to cut the number of deaths on the southern African country’s roads — reflectors for their ears.
The reflector scheme, which is backed by the Namibian government, has been devised by a pair of British donkey lovers — Russell Hay, a businessman who has lived in Namibia, and Peter Collingwood, a London advertising executive.
“I have hit donkeys and they do a lot of damage — it is a very expensive issue,” said Hay.
A charity has been formed to fund the fixing of a fluorescent tag to each ear of most of the country’s 200,000 donkeys. Hay and Collingwood will launch a pilot project in September, when schoolchildren will be paid to tag about 400 donkeys in three of the worst accident blackspots.
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The 1,250-mile road from the Namibian coast through Botswana to Johannesburg is most affected by sleeping donkeys. Accidents are common in the dry season, when farmers allow the animals to roam free. Donkeys are used to pull carts, fetch water and plough fields.
The reflectors, which resemble the identity tags worn by livestock in the UK, will each cost about £1.50 and will be produced by Ritchey Tagg in Masham, North Yorkshire.
Fhihalani Ndjaba, the permanent secretary of Namibia’s ministry of works, roads and transport, said: “We have a high level of accidents caused by donkeys at night and a number of deaths have resulted — we think this idea is a good one.”