Endangered Mammals - Rebirth Of The Quagga

Why do zebras have stripes? Nobody knows for sure. Although scientists have proposed a variety of theories, none has proved conclusive. What is known is that among the varieties of African plains zebras, those that are native to southern Africa display less striping than zebras that inhabit the northern regions. Perhaps the most uniquely FIGURE 7.12
Three quaggas now run at a national park in South Africa, the result of a program to rebreed this zebra subspecies from other subspecies. (AP/Wide World Photos) striped variety of zebra was the quagga, or Burchell's zebra. The quagga, a lightly browned zebra, displayed virtually no striping on its hindquarters and legs (see Figure 7.12). In the nineteenth century, sheep and goat herders who settled within the quagga's grazing range hunted the odd-looking animal literally to extinction. When the last living quagga died at the Amsterdam Zoo on August 12, 1883, all that remained of the species were 23 preserved animal skins.

Approximately 100 years later, scientists analyzed tissue from an old quagga skin and discovered that, genetically, the quagga was nearly identical to other zebras—it was therefore likely to be a subspecies of zebra and not a separate species, as had originally been thought. A selective breeding project was undertaken in 1987 in an attempt to breed zebras that had the striping traits of the extinct quagga. South African taxidermist Reinhold Rau spearheaded the project. He hypothesized that the genes that code for the distinctive color and striping patterns of quaggas existed recessively in South African zebras of the late twentieth century. Quagga project members assembled a collection of zebras that most closely resembled the extinct quagga in striping and coloring and began the slow process of breeding successive generations that increasingly resembled the quagga. By 2000 the project had produced a number of individuals that resembled the preserved quagga skins in pattern, and others that resembled the skins in color. However, no individuals resembled the extinct animal in both striping and coloring. The project received public funding for the first time in June 2000, as breeding attempts continued.

A similar project was underway to rebreed the endangered Mongolian Przewalski horse and another to rebreed the tarpan, a European wild horse.