THEY resemble a cross between the Star Wars character Chewbacca and a woolly mammoth.
Now a Hampshire woman has launched a campaign to save a critically- endangered breed of giant French donkey from extinction after their numbers dropped to less than 1,000.
The enormous Baudet de Poitou donkeys date back to medieval times when they were bred with horses to produce mules, the workhorse of the day.
Farmer Annie Pollock from Lymington in the New Forest has rescued donkeys from the abbatoir in France, and now has the largest herd of Poitou in the UK.
They can grow to more than 8ft tall – bigger than most horses – and breeders have to keep them to a strict diet to stop them growing out of control.
Annie, 52, has spent the last nine years building up a herd of 22 Poitou donkeys, which originate from the Poitou-Charentes region of France and are known for their friendly yet mischievous personalities.
She and her small team of farm hands work round the clock to look after the rare donkeys, dedicating hours to grooming their unusual shaggy coats to stop them turning into dreadlocks.
The breed were popular working animals until the mid 20th century when they were replaced with machines.
A survey in 1977 found just 44 surviving donkeys, and there are still less than 1,000 in existence.
Annie, one of only two Poitou breeders in the UK, said: “In 2004 I phoned a lady in France looking to buy a llama, and ended up with two Poitou donkeys which I instantly fell in love with.
“I started looking into the breed and found out they were incredibly rare.
“Gradually I built up the herd, and then started rescuing them.
“I have rescued seven from France which would have otherwise ended up going to the slaughterhouse.”
The biggest donkey at Annie’s 120- acre Norley Farm is Verveine, dwarfing standard donkeys at 16 hands – or 5ft 4in – measured to its shoulders. Its huge neck and head add several extra feet to its overall height.
The biggest donkey in the UK is thought to be at a farm in Lincolnshire standing at 8ft tall when measured from the ground to the tip of its ears
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