Many strange things have been seen on Google’s Street View application. Now they’ve been forced to answer about the fate of a donkey in Botswana that they may or may not have knocked over. They have of course denied knocking the donkey over.

The image of a donkey lying in a compromising position on a dirt road in Botswana was tweeted by @TheRealSheldonC yesterday and caused quite a lot of speculation.

By all accounts, it seemed possible that a vehicle used to map parts of Botswana had been involved in a hit-and-run with a donkey.

Not so, say Google, but possible, say others.

Reports News.com.au, who received an official response from Google on the matter:

Commentators claim it is possible that the Google Street View car ran over the donkey and the shot of it lying on the roadside was captured by the rear-facing camera.

Google sent News.com.au internal Street View images but did not give permission for them to be published.

In the photos, the company allege that the Google Street View car approached the donkey which was already lying down, which then gets up and continues walking uninjured.

The problem with this version of events is that – based on the images – it appears as though the donkey is walking backwards.

The image – captured from the front camera of the car – featured the donkey lying down, in between two fairly prominent tyre marks. The second image shows the donkey getting up. The third image shows the donkey standing off and to the left, metres behind where it fell. The fourth image shows the donkey even further back and to the left. Google claims the photos show the events in the order they occurred.

 

News.com.au confirmed with a zoologist that it would be quite something if the donkey managed to walk / trot / fly backwards like this.

Google offered the following:

Our Street View teams take the safety of people and donkeys very seriously. A review of our imagery confirms that we did not cause any harm to the donkey.

Maybe the donkey had just been enjoying a nice roll in the dust when it was disturbed by the vehicle.

[Source: News.com.au]