Beach donkeys enjoy winter break

The donkeys will return to the beach in the new year

Donkeys which spend the year giving rides to children on an Anglesey beach are savouring a new year holiday on a wetland nature reserve.

The animals have left the sands of Benllech beach to graze at the Cors Goch reserve, Anglesey, and help preserve the site's habitat.

Chris Wynne, conservation officer with North Wales Wildlife Trust, said the donkeys were doing "a fantastic job".

If the land was not grazed, scrub and trees would take over the area.

Elsewhere in Wales, a variety of grazing animals are used by trusts to keep wildlife in check.

Asian water buffalo are used at two sites - the Teifi Marshes nature reserve in Cilgerran, Cardigan, and the Three-Cornered Meadow reserve on the Wrexham-Chester border.

Without the grazing of these hungry donkeys, the heath would become covered in scrub Chris Wynne, North Wales Wildlife Trust

Wild Canada geese help out at the Llyn Coed y Dinas reserve in Montgomeryshire, while mountain sheep are used at the Pentwyn Farm reserve, near Monmouth, as cattle would be not suitable under the trees of the 22-acre apple orchard.

Mr Wynne said the donkeys were useful because they did not mind eating thorny gorse.

"The donkeys do a fantastic job grazing the rare heathland habitat," explained Mr Wynne.

"This helps create a heath rich in uncommon wildflowers like pale heath violet and fragrant orchids.

"Without the grazing of these hungry donkeys, the heath would become covered in scrub, shading out the rare flowers that we are working hard to protect."

During the rest of the year, mountain ponies are moved around different parts of fen and pasture at Cors Goch.