Farm forced to shut by foal fans

The number of Poitou donkeys has risen from 48 in 1978 to about 600

A farm has been forced to close as it has been inundated by people wanting to see its four rare newborn donkeys.

Over the past two weeks Woodford Farm in Hampshire saw the birth of four Poitou donkeys of which there are only about 600 left alive in the world.

The farm had to hang up a no-entry sign after hundreds of people flocked to see the foals.

Poitou donkeys were originally bred by the Romans as status symbols, and are rarer than Giant pandas.

Too much

A spokesman for the farm, John Gosling, said a no-entry sign had been hung at the farm's entrance after "hundreds" of people drove up to the farm to see the newborn foals.

He said they were also desperately trying to pull a telephone number and an invitation asking people to call if they wanted to arrange a visit, from the farm's website.

Mr Gosling said "too many people wandering around" were disturbing the foals, which now needed to be left in peace with their mothers.

"We had somebody here from Germany completely unexpected, having seen it on German TV.

"It got a bit much.

Pure bloodline

"We don't have the facilities to deal with it."

Poitou donkeys are much larger than their common cousins, and can grow to 16 hands in height.

The World Wild Wildlife Fund estimates there about 1,600 Giant pandas left in the wild, while there are only about 600 Poitou donkeys.

Mr Gosling said after initially being bred by the Romans, they were then bred with French horses to produce extra big mules for farm work.

The breed - which needs a pure bloodline to continue - began to decline after tractors made mules obsolete.

Mr Gosling said after World War II, starving French farmers also used to eat them.