Alva Review-Courier -

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — It takes a real ass to stand up to a band of coyotes.

And it takes two asses to keep the wild dogs at bay while simultaneously corralling some 130 roving eaters that have hundreds of acres of grassland to till.

But such is the task for Paco and Maria, a pair of local donkeys charged with protecting a recently introduced herd of sheep at the city's freshly reopened Plains Conservation Center.

For the past month, scores of rams and ewes have been eating their way through some 1,000 acres of prairie grasslands at the conservation center, slowly aerating the arid soil and prom...