BEAUTIFUL PATTERNS, ONCE EXTINCT, LIVE AGAIN NOW

QUAGGA

The quagga, an unusually striped animal that humans drove to extinction, is making a beautiful comeback!

Striped on the front half of its body, like a zebra, and solid brown on its hindquarters, the quagga looks were quite unique.

Large numbers of quagga once roamed southern South Africa but were hunted to extinction in the late 19th century. Normally, when a species becomes extinct, it can’t be resurrected. 

However, genetic studies have proven that quagga is not a unique species, but rather a subspecies of the Plains zebra. Quagga genes still exist in today’s zebra population. Therefore, theoretically, quagga could live again.

Reinhold Rau, a taxidermist, made it his mission to bring quagga back from extinction. In 1987, he founded the Quagga Project, along with a team of like-minded scientists. Working with ancient quagga hide samples, they identified the genes that distinguish quagga from other zebra subspecies.

It is believed that quagga diverged from the other Plains zebra subspecies only between 120,000 and 290,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene, as climate and need for camouflage changed.

The Project team developed a selective breeding program. They selected 19 Plains zebras that possessed the closest quagga gene sets in order to create a “founding population” that could breed and produce quagga-like offspring.

Critics of the Project point out that while the team is selecting for quagga coloring & striping patterns, the original quagga may have possessed other differences, such as unique behaviors, that can’t be determined through DNA.

Because the Project couldn’t claim 100% quagga veracity in their newly re-engineered animals, they named them “Rau quagga” to distinguish.

Five generations of Rau quagga have been born since 1988, each successively exhibiting increasingly close resemblance to original quagga.

There are currently 6 live Rau quagga. When that number grows to 50, the group will be moved to a preserve on the Western Cape. There is hope! 

Appaloosa horses, once rendered extinct by war, were revived much in the same way. Now their spotted beauty flourishes in the North American midwest and west. We can’t wait to see these beautifully patterned quagga roam in abundance once more.

Read more about Beautiful Patterns in Spotted Beauty Triumphs! The Magnificence of Appaloosas Now, Rainbow Patterned Mountains Are Beautiful Now, Beautiful Patterns are Delicious Now, New Perspectives Reveal Beautiful New Patterns and A Beautifully Patterned Place & Way of Life Now.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. A Male Quagga from Africa. Model was a live specimen at the Royal College of Surgeons. Painting by Jacques-Laurent Agasse.
2. Image: by Oggmus. Rau Quagga in the Animal Camp Above Groote Schuur Hospital. South Africa.
3. Image: Courtesy of Quagga Project. Rau Quagga. South Africa.
4. Image: Courtesy of Quagga Project. Fifth Generation Rau Quagga. South Africa.
5. Image: by Åsa Berndtsson. Zebra / Plains Zebra. South Africa.
6. Image: Courtesy of Quagga Project. Rau Quagga. South Africa.
7. Image: Courtesy of Quagga Project. Alex. Animal in Quagga Selective Breeding Program. South Africa.
8. Image: Courtesy of Quagga Project. Rau Quagga. South Africa.
9. Image: Courtesy of Quagga Project. Montage Comparing Plains Zebras with Munich & Tring Quaggas.
10. Image: by NormanAck. Another Appaloosa Foal.
11. Image: by Derek Keats. Plains Zebra, Equus Quagga at Sunset in Mapungubwe. South Africa.
12. Image: by Jessi Olan. Noah’s Ark.
13. Image: by BN App - Download now!
14. Image: by Nicholas Turland. Plains Zebra. Equus quagga.