The Catalan breed is considered to be very old;
Pliny the Elder mentions donkeys on the
Plain of Vic, in the
comarca of
Osona. Some believe it to be related to the
Mallorquín and the
Zamorano-Leonés donkey. It originates in the basins of the
Cardener,
Segre and
Ter rivers. A
herd-book was established in 1880 or 1929. Numbers fell during the
Spanish Civil War, but recovered in the next decade. In the 1960s and 1970s rural depopulation and the
mechanisation of agriculture led to a new decline in numbers. A
breeders' association, the , was formed in 1978 and the 1929 herd-book was re-opened. Much of the credit for the recovery of the breed is given to one person, Joan Gassó i Salvans from the
comarca of
Berguedà. In 2004, 32% of the registered population of 336 were on his
finca in
Olvan. An official national genealogical herd-book was opened in 2002. At the end of 2013 the total population in Spain was recorded as 851; by 2024 this number had risen to 961, of which about 350 were in the hands of members of the
breed association, the . In 2020 the
Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, the Spanish ministry of agriculture, listed the breed as "in danger of extinction". The Catalan has been exported to many countries, among them Algeria, Congo, Madagascar, Tunisia and Zaire in Africa; Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Cuba and the United States in the Americas; and also Australia, Germany, India and the United Kingdom. It contributed to the history of European breeds including the
Baudet de Poitou in France, and the
Asino di Martina Franca and
Asino di Pantelleria in Italy. In the United States it played an essential part in the development of the
American Mammoth Jack: a Catalan jack known as Imported Mammoth, brought to
Charleston in
South Carolina in 1819, was widely used for breeding in parts of
Kentucky,
Missouri and
Tennessee. == Characteristics ==