Lost Donkey Seen Living With Elk Herd 5 Years Later

A donkey who went missing five years ago in California has been caught on camera roaming with a herd of wild elk.

I bumped into a herd of elk that have adopted a donkey, triathlete and hunter Max Fennell wrote on Instagram alongside a video of the blended herd . I cant get over seeing it and Im amazed that the donkey looks happy and healthy!

The footage, recorded on a hunting trip and posted in March, shows a donkey standing among about a dozen elk. Members of the herd look at the camera simultaneously before trotting away.

The storybook scene took place a few miles from the spot in Northern Californias Cache Creek Wilderness where a male donkey named Diesel disappeared in 2019, CBS Sacramento reported .

One of Diesels owners, Terrie Drewry, told the news outlet in an interview published Thursday that the donkey in the video is definitely him.

Diesel had been hiking with Terrie Drewrys husband, Dave Drewry, when something spooked him and he got away. For weeks, the couple searched on foot and even with drone assistance to find the donkey, but were never able to locate him.

It was amazing to see Diesel apparently thriving in the recent video, Terrie Drewry told CBS Sacramento.

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Hes living his best life, she said. Hes happy. Hes healthy, and it was just a relief.

An earlier video , shared on Instagram by user Mikki Rhodes , also appeared to show Diesel wandering with elk. Rhodes said in a caption that his owners were very happy to see the donkey doing well.

Diesel knows how to live without the aid of humans. He was originally a wild donkey , adopted through a Bureau of Land Management program . The program allows members of the public to adopt animals captured in the federal agencys controversial roundups of wild horses and donkeys, aimed at reducing the free-roaming population of the animals on public lands.