During the second half of the 20th century, European countries experienced an increase in their forest area due to the global change. Consequently, there has been an increase in large forest fires, mainly in the Mediterranean basin, and this has forced the development of several types of prevention programs. One of them is the control of the understory by livestock. In this sense, browsing with a combination of donkeys and goats could be a good option, as both animals usually feed on forest species. However, little is known about their preferences for the key species of the Mediterranean forest. Using a cafeteria test, the preferences and consumption of both animals have been determined for five typical species of the Mediterranean forest, such as Quercus ilex, Pinus halepensis, Phillyrea latifolia, Rubus ulmifolius, and Brachypodium retusum. Results showed that donkeys and goats could act complementarily in the reduction of the fuel biomass of forests. Donkeys appear to act more on fine fuel, such as B. retusum, and goats on the more pyrophyte species, in this case P. halepensis. In addition, given that donkeys are at severe risk of extinction in Europe, this role of providing ecosystem services could contribute to their conservation. Despite this study only showing that goats and donkeys would consume all five presented plant species and that there are some differences in consumption during a short-term test, it constitutes a useful first step for conservation and fire prevention in the Mediterranean forests.

中文翻译：

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五种地中海森林物种中驴和山羊的偏好：减少火灾的隐患。

在20世纪下半叶，由于全球变化，欧洲国家的森林面积有所增加。因此，主要在地中海盆地的大面积森林火灾增加了，这迫使制定了几种类型的预防方案。其中之一是牲畜对林下层的控制。从这个意义上讲，结合驴和山羊进行浏览可能是一个不错的选择，因为两种动物通常都以森林物种为食。但是，对于它们对地中海森林主要树种的偏好知之甚少。使用自助餐厅测试，已经确定了地中海森林的五个典型物种，如冬青栎（Quercus ilex），樟子松（Pinus halepensis），费城费城（Phillyrea latifolia），悬钩子（Rubus ulmifolius）和短枝曲霉（Brachypodium retusum）。结果表明，驴和山羊在减少森林燃料生物量方面可以起到互补作用。驴似乎对诸如B. retusum的细小燃料起更多的作用，而山羊则对更多的自噬体（在这种情况下为哈勒种）进行了作用。。此外，鉴于驴在欧洲极有灭绝的危险，提供生态系统服务的作用可能有助于其保护。尽管这项研究仅表明山羊和驴会消耗掉所介绍的所有五种植物，并且在短期测试中消耗量存在一些差异，但这仍是地中海森林保护和防火的第一步。