Fontanesi said the albino donkeys protect themselves from the sun in prison buildings that date from the early 1900s, when the island was isolated as a detention center for war prisoners, mafia leaders, and terrorists before closing in 1997. | Courtesy Valerio Joe Utzeri

No need to imagine. This scene exists. And while it evokes remarkable beauty “where nature and history merge in a fascinating landscape,” said one scientist, it also prods the curiosity of local biologists. How is it that these fair-colored animals have evolved and now thrive in a sun-scorching world that, theoretically, could have eradicated them centuries ago?

An albinism mutation—creating the pigmentless “albino” effect—probably occurred in a donkey on the island of Asinara, Italy, several centuries ago, said Luca Fontanesi, PhD, of the University of Bologna Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, in Italy. And inbreeding due to the herd’s isolation likely allowed the albinism to continue in later generations.

Today, just over 100 white donkeys live along with colored donkeys on the uninhabited island of Asinara, which literally means “donkey-inhabited” in Italian. They’ve had no human intervention for more than 100 years