1 / 4
2 / 4
3 / 4
4 / 4
The quagga is a subspecies of plains zebra that was endemic to South Africa until the 19th century. It lived from the Pleistocene era to the Holocene. The last one in the wild died in 1878. The previous captive died at an Amsterdam zoo in 1883. The only specimen photographed alive at the London Zoo passed away in 1872.
Quaggas were believed to be at least 257 cm long and 125-135 cm tall at the shoulder. The color of the head, neck, and upper body was reddish brown, banded irregularly, and marked with dark brown stripes. The stripes were more clear on the head and neck and gradually became fainter until the shoulder. It had a broad, dark median dorsal stripe. The undersurface of the body, the legs, and the tail were nearly white, without stripes. The crest was high, surmounted by a standing mane, banded brown and white.
The quagga is a subspecies of the now-living plains zebra(Equus quagga). It is also the relative of the Burchell’s zebra(Equus quagga burchellii), a subspecies of the plains zebra. They were once found in the Karoo of Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State in South Africa.
The quagga had disappeared from most of its range in the 1850s. The last population in the Orange Free State died in the late 1870s. The previously known quagga in the wild died in 1878. As Europeans settled in South Africa, they hunted the quaggas extensively for their meat and hide. Some were taken to many European zoos but the breeding programs were unsuccessful. The last captive quagga, which was kept in Amsterdam's Natura Artis Magistra zoo, lived from May 1867 till it died on August 1883. The only specimen photographed alive, a quagga mare at London Zoo, died in 1872. Since then, people have tried bringing these extinct zebras back into the real world.
An organization called The Quagga Project was started in South Africa. It selectively breeds a founder population of southern plains zebras to retrieve some of the genes that made the quagga’s characteristic striping pattern. They plan to reintroduce the zebras that visually look like the extinct quagga into reserves in their former habitat.