l'Association pour la culture et les arts méditerranéens (ACAM) claimed in 2010 that the donkey is under threat of extinction in Tunisia.

According to one theory, supported notably by l'Encyclopédie berbère, the domestic species is not native to the region, and is descended from the African wild donkey (E. africanus), whose origins are found in East Africa.

[1] According to the theory of Colin Groves (1986), a sub-species of the North African wild donkey (Equus africanus atlanticus []) had lived until the first few centuries AD, but it is not known if it was domesticated, and it seems very unlikely.,.

[3] Whatever its exact origins, the donkey was domesticated in Africa,[5] the oldest proof of its use going back to the culture of Maadi-Bouto, in Egypt, in the 4th Millennium B.C...[6] The history of the donkey in Africa is notoriously difficult to study as, although the species was widely used, very little was written about it, no plans for the development nor for the improvement of the species were developed, and very few archaeological remnants are left.

[5] Donkeys have been represented in cave paintings in areas of the Sahara since the earliest period of Antiquity,[1] notably in Libya and Morocco.

The Golden Ass by Apuleius also provided valuable information concerning the uses of the donkey during the Antiquity in North Africa, notably regarding their use for carrying wood and food products to sell on the market.

[13] The consumption of donkey meat would have, in all likelihood, been prohibited in Islam, to the extent that Muslims, as well as practising Christians in Tunisia, probably ate very little of it.

[20] However, the rural species has undergone noticeable changes since the 1990s as the transition from nomadism to sedentism led to the gradual disappearance of donkeys and mules as they were replaced by motorised vehicles.

[21] In addition to this, an epizootic of equine influenza hit the country in 1998, particularly in the Tozeur region, starting from the end of the month of January, whose spread affected horses, mules and donkeys equally.

[21] In Toujane, the traditional oil mill was previously run with the use of donkeys or with small dromedaries which were able to set in motion a stone base weighing approximately 150 kg.

[25] The roads in the Tunisian Great South (2004) can vary dramatically and all types of vehicles run along them, such as bicycles, Mobylettes, cars, share taxis and donkey wagons.

They used the animal to pull the ard in the ghaba (gardens), to carry water or wood, and to accompany people during transhumance and when sowing seeds.

[27] As of 2014, L'École supérieure des industries alimentaires de Tunis has been looking to promote the production and consumption of donkey milk, but its need to be refrigerated in order to preserve it poses a major problem.

[35] The donkey holds very negative cultural connotations, its name serving as the equivalent to an animal epithet to call someone stupid or indecisive.