The last Quagga in London Zoo, 1864

Having visited the Quagga Project last year and spent many hours studying them, it seems that the Quagga Project is making good headway. I will post a photo of one of last years foals at some point. It is an amazing project and the Quaggas are not infact white but quite a beige colour. As it has now been decided that the Quagga was infact the most southern Plains Zebra and Plains zebras are only different in their coat pattern, it begs the question if we can bring back the coat pattern are they extinct!!! I am sure this question will go on and on.

My point is that though Quaggas were undoubtedly Plains zebras, their colouration and markings were very different to other plains zebras. Its not just a matter of producing 'reduced striping.' Several of the Project zebras do have a beige ground colour, but only similar to that carried by some of the founder animals. So far they have not been able to produce the darker colour of the originals.

Have you seen the Quagga poster, of all the mounted Quaggas?

It will depend on the genome. If the genome for the Quagga is gone, you could recreate it's physical appearance, but if you can't recreate the genome then, yes, the species is extinct.

Perhaps that depends on whether quaggas were part of a continous Plains zebra population or not. Some authorities insist that they were, others state they were an isolated or 'relict' population (of plains Zebras) which evolved their own specific and unique colour and markings. If the latter is true, it won't be possible to recreate them.

If you see photos of the (also) extinct Burchell's race of Plains Zebra, it was a classic black/white animal with no stripes on its legs. Many of the zebras bred by the Quagga project already resemble Burchell zebras, so can they be said to have already produced another extinct race?

The poster doesn't have all the Mounted Quaggas, but it is in colour. Most of the museum specimens are heavily faded, so the background colour is buff or fawn. But the Berlin(?) museum Quagga is better preserved and exhibits the true colour- a dark maroon-chestnut (almost Okapi colour) while the residual striping on the neck consists of narrower white lines rather than the broad bands/stripes as in the extant Zebras.

The thoughts of Groves and Bell on Quagga and Burchell's Zebra, courtesy of Wikipedia:-

To recap; evidently Burchell's Zebra never became extinct, and a proportion of present day Damara Zebras = Burchells. I think the Quagga Project is creating yet more of these zebras with the reduced striping, though in some cases they have already bred out striping on the body to a greater degree than ever occurs naturally without such selection.

Re the true Quagga, no doubting it was a Plains zebra (it had the same voice) but I believe there are several subtle differences which set it apart from other Plains Zebra, as well as its distinct colouration/striping pattern. If you contrast the photos of the ZSL 'live' Quagga and the better mounted museum specimens with other living plains zebra(such as the ones being used in the Quagga Project) the following are evident;

Quagga had;

1. Longer, heavier body giving more 'pony-like' appearance.

2. Shorter mane/larger ears

3. Distinctive markings on cheeks/face.

I think some of these (mane/ears) have been commented on by early writers who saw the living animals too. Possibly complete isolation from other zebra populations gave rise to these particular characteristics, which is why I believe the Quagga Project can never truly recreate them.

I’ve seen the Berlin quagga several times, most recently last September; the Berlin specimen is certainly the darkest, most richly coloured individual of the thirteen or fourteen museum quaggas that I've seen.

Unfortunately, the display case in which it's exhibited makes it really hard to get a good unobstructed photograph of it.

There are photos of it on the web where it looks as if it has been put (without the case) outside the front door of the Museum in full daylight. I don't know what their secret is in maintaining its colour, possibly reduced lighting? The next most natural-looking(colourwise) is probably the 'Rau' foal .