Life got you feeling down? A donkey could be the solution to lifting your spirits.
This is the gist of a new study published in the journal Science Reports, which found that teenagers who spent as little as three minutes petting and caressing rescued donkeys and miniature horses immediately felt less anxious, sad, and lonely, while also feeling calmer.
It may not literally cure your depression, but the work shows that interacting with these animals can significantly enhance your mood.
“It was lovely to see that interacting with nature could make such a positive difference so quickly,” study co-lead author Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez, an associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior at the University of California, Davis, told the Washington Post.
