"Ossabaw Sicilian Donkeys" was photographed in May of 2019 on Ossabaw Island.
Ossabaw Island is one of the mostly undeveloped islands of Coastal Georgia. I had the pleasure to stay there for a weekend along with eleven other photographers for a planned photography weekend. It was a wonderful weekend and one I won't soon forget.
The Sicilian Donkeys actually came from a collection of Porter Crosley who, more than 50 years ago, started a collection of exotic animals on an island that he owned in South Carolina called Bull Island. After he died, the animals were to be given away to a few selected people. Sandy West (then owner of Ossabaw Island) received a few of the Sicilian Donkeys. The Genesis biology students were able to study them as 'free range' donkeys, living life without human intervention and the herd grew to over 100 donkeys by the 1990s. Three students earned their Phd with dissertations regarding their study of the donkeys.
In 1978, Sandy West sold the island to the state of Georgia with the provision that the island would never be developed and only used for education, culture, scientific, or archaeological purposes. In 2000, the state determined the donkeys were a feral species and had to be removed. Only eight were allowed to stay on the island and have been sterilized. Here, two of the last of the Ossabaw Sicilian Donkeys are shown pictured in the doorway of an old smokehouse.