Quagga 25229 225603207 2008-07-14T14:41:48Z 67.236.87.21 /* Trivia */ {{alternateuses}} : ''Not to be confused with the marsupial [[quokka]]'' {{Taxobox | name = Quagga | status = EX | extinct = [[1883]] | status_system = iucn3.1 | image = Quagga_photo.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = Quagga in [[London Zoo]], 1870 | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Chordata]] | classis = [[Mammal]]ia | ordo = [[Perissodactyla]] | familia = [[Equidae]] | genus = ''[[Equidae|Equus]]'' | subgenus = ''[[Zebra|Hippotigris]]'' | species = ''[[Plains Zebra|E. quagga]]'' | subspecies = '''''E. q. quagga''''' | trinomial = ''Equus quagga quagga'' | trinomial_authority = [[Pieter Boddaert|Boddaert]], [[1785]] }} The '''quagga''' is an [[List of extinct animals|extinct]] subspecies of the [[plains zebra]],<ref>[http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/quagga.htm "Equus quagga quagga"]. ''The Extinction Website''. Reference May 19, 2008.</ref> which was once found in great numbers in [[South Africa]]'s [[Cape Province]] and the southern part of the [[Orange Free State]]. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the rear parts were a plain brown. The name comes from a [[Khoikhoi]] word for ''zebra'' and is [[Onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]], being said to resemble the quagga's call. The only quagga to ever have been photographed alive was the Regent's Park Zoo mare in London. ==Taxonomy== [[Image:Quagga in enclosure.jpg|thumb|left|Quagga in enclosure]] The quagga was originally classified as an individual [[species]], ''Equus quagga'', in 1788. Over the next fifty years or so, many other zebras were described by naturalists and explorers. Because of the great variation in coat patterns (no two zebras are alike), taxonomists were left with a great number of described "species", and no easy way to tell which of these were true species, which were [[subspecies]], and which were simply natural variants. Long before this confusion was sorted out, the quagga had been hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated stock. The last wild quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in captivity, a mare, died on [[August 12]], [[1883]] at the [[Artis Magistra zoo]] in [[Amsterdam]]. Because of the great confusion between different zebra species, particularly among the general public, the quagga had become extinct before it was realized that it appeared to be a separate species. [[Image:QuaggaIllustration.jpg|thumb|left|1793 illustration of the quagga stallion of [[Louis XVI]]'s menagerie at [[Versailles]].]] The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its [[Deoxyribonucleic acid|DNA]] studied. Recent genetic research at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] has demonstrated that the quagga was in fact not a separate species at all, but diverged from the extremely variable [[plains zebra]], ''Equus burchelli'', between 120,000 and 290,000 years ago, and suggests that it should be named ''Equus burchelli quagga''. However, according to the rules of [[Binomial nomenclature|biological nomenclature]], where there are two or more alternative names for a single species, the name first used takes priority. As the quagga was described about thirty years earlier than the plains zebra, it appears that the correct terms are ''E. quagga quagga'' for the quagga and ''E. quagga burchelli'' for the plains zebra, unless "''Equus burchelli''" is officially declared to be a [[nomen conservandum]]. [[Image:Quagga-london.jpg|thumb|Quagga specimen at [[Natural History Museum]], London.]] After the very close relationship between the quagga and surviving zebras was discovered, the [[Quagga Project]] was started by [[Reinhold Rau]] in South Africa to recreate the quagga by selective breeding from plains zebra stock, with the eventual aim of reintroducing them to the wild. This type of breeding is also called ''[[breeding back]]''. In early 2006, it was reported that the third and fourth generations of the project have produced animals which look very much like the depictions and preserved specimens of the quagga, though whether looks alone are enough to declare that this project has produced a true "re-creation" of the original quagga is controversial. [[DNA]] from mounted specimens was successfully extracted in 1984, but the technology to use recovered DNA for breeding does not yet exist. In addition to skins such as the one held by the [[Natural History Museum]] in London, there are 23 known stuffed and mounted quagga throughout the world. A twenty-fourth specimen was destroyed in [[Königsberg]], [[Germany]] (now [[Kaliningrad]]), during [[World War II]].<ref name="nytimes2006">Max D.T. 2006. Can You Revive an Extinct Animal? The New York Times. Published: [[January 1]] [[2006]].</ref> ==Quagga hybrids and similar animals== [[Image:Quagga-tring.jpg|thumb|left|Quagga specimen with zebra-horse hybrid foal at [[Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum]], Tring, England.]] [[Zebra]]s have been cross-bred to other equines such as [[donkey]]s and [[horse]]s. There are modern animal farms which continue to do so. The offspring are known as [[zeedonk]]s, [[zonkey]]s and [[zorse]]s (the term for all such zebra hybrids is [[zebroid]]). Zebroids are often exhibited as curiosities although some are broken to harness or as riding animals. On [[January 20]], [[2005]], Henry, a foal of the [[Quagga Project]], was born. He most resembles the quagga. There is a record of a quagga bred to a horse in the 1896 work ''Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine'' by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle: :''In the year 1815 Lord Morton put a male quagga to a young chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood, which had never before been bred from. The result was a female hybrid which resembled both parents.''<ref name="hybird">Hartwell, S. Hybrid Mammals. Downloaded at [[July 24]] [[2006]] at http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-mammals.html.</ref> In his 1859 ''[[The Origin of Species]]'', [[Charles Darwin]] recalls seeing coloured drawings of zebra-donkey hybrids, and mentions ''"Lord Moreton's famous hybrid from a chesnut'' [sic] ''mare and male quagga..."'' Darwin mentioned this particular hybrid again in 1868 in ''The Variation Of Animals And Plants Under Domestication'',<ref name="darwin">Darwin, C. 1883. The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. Second Edition, Revised. D. Appleton & Co, New York. Online available at http://www.esp.org/books/darwin/variation/facsimile/title3.html.</ref> and provides a citation to the journal in which Lord Morton first described the breeding.<!---Darwin, Vol 1, Chapter 11, p435 of "Variation", pub 1868, 2d edition 1883, cites to Morton, 'Philosoph. Transact.' 1821 page 20.---> [[Okapi]] markings are nearly the reverse of the quagga, with the forequarters being mostly plain and the hindquarters being heavily striped. However, the okapi is no relation of the quagga, horse, donkey, or zebra. Its closest taxonomic relative is the [[giraffe]]. ==Trivia== An animated quagga appeared in the Soviet Union's [[The Cat Who Walked by Herself]], in an animated sequence when [[Dog]] tracked the hoofprints of one and [[Cat]] discussing the boy about Quagga being shot by [[Human|Man]], [[Human|Man]]'s selfish actions and the [[IUCN Red List|Red Book]]. ==See also== * [[List of extinct animals]] ==References== {{wikisource|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Quagga}} {{reflist}} ===Other sources=== * , M.A., East, R. & Rubenstein, D.I. 2002. Equus quagga. In: [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php?species=7957 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species]. Last accessed on [[8 March]] [[2007]] ==External links== * ARKive - [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Equus_quagga/ images and movies of the quagga ''(Equus quagga)''] * [http://www.quaggaproject.org The Quagga Project] * [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/horsetigers/quagga.html PBS Nature: Restoring the Quagga] * [http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=905401ea81e943ee946daa3f61466c13&referrer=parent&backto=searcharticlesresults,1,1; Biology Letters: A rapid loss of stripes: the evolutionary history of the extinct quagga, 2005] * [http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/quagga.htm The Extinction Website - Species Info - Quagga] * [http://www.africanexplorer.co.za/green/quagga/quagga.htm African Explorer - Bringing the Quagga back to life.] * [http://www.slate.com/id/2132747/ "Quagga Quest Can we bring back a long-extinct animal?"] {{Equidae}} [[Category:Extinct mammals]] [[Category:Equids]] [[Category:Extinct animals of Africa]] [[Category:Megafauna of Africa]] [[Category:Zebras]] [[Category:Recent extinctions]] [[ar:كواجا]] [[an:Quagga]] [[cs:Zebra kvaga]] [[da:Quagga]] [[de:Quagga]] [[es:Equus quagga quagga]] [[fr:Equus quagga]] [[gl:Quagga]] [[ko:콰가]] [[id:Quagga]] [[it:Equus quagga quagga]] [[he:קואגה]] [[nl:Quagga]] [[ja:クアッガ]] [[pl:Kwagga właściwa]] [[pt:Quagga]] [[ru:Квагга]] [[fi:Kvagga]] [[sv:Kvagga]] [[zh:斑驢]]