![]() ![]() Quagga Project animals (top left) currently more closely resemble plains zebras (top center and right) than quagga museum specimens (bottom) (Photo source: Harley et al 2009) It is believed that this extinction might be reversible.” The extinction of the Quagga was caused by man out of greed and short-sightedness. “Attitudes towards the environment now are very different from what they were during the 19th century. The Quagga Project website presents the project rationale as follows: ![]() ![]() All that matters is the knowledge that quaggas (or, at least, suitable placeholders) are back where they belong. People are not restoring the quagga for the sake of the ecosystem, or for the welfare of any individual animals. Unlike advocates of other de-extinction projects, the proponents of the restoration have made no conservation-based arguments for the ecological role of the quagga or its importance for biodiversity conservation. The project will not stop with the restoration of the quagga in captivity: it will be returned to its proper, wild place. The Quagga Project concedes that the animals that they are breeding may not be quaggas but will “have at least the exterior characteristics.” They are not reviving the quagga, but the idea of a quagga.Ī fourth-generation foal of the Quagga Project, with its mother (Photo source: ) Four generations later, these animals resemble plains zebras with fewer stripes. Without quagga DNA to clone, the project is creating quaggas solely from selective breeding based on coat patterns. The Quagga Project began in 1986 with the goal of “breeding back” the quagga from a small group of zebras and releasing these animals into the wild. We know next to nothing about quagga ecology or behavior aside from the sound of its call, preserved in its name: “KWAH-ha!” Now, a small, dedicated group of people is attempting to reimagine and recreate the quagga and return it to its native habitat. The only remaining traces of the quagga are 23 skins-coat half-horse, half-zebra-and some poor-quality mitochondrial DNA. Hunted to extinction in its native South Africa, the last captive quagga died in the Amsterdam Zoo in 1883. A museum specimen of a quagga skin (Photo source: Soologische Staatssammlung München) ![]()
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