http://www.quaggaproject.org/

This project is an attempt by a group of dedicated people in South Africa to bring back an animal from extinction and reintroduce it into reserves in its former habitat.

DNA analysis has shown that the Quagga was not a separate species of zebra but in fact a subspecies of the Plains Zebra (Burchell’s Zebra) The Quagga, formerly inhabited the Karoo and southern Free State of South Africa. Like other grazing mammals, Quaggas had been ruthlessly hunted. They were seen by the settlers as competitors for the grazing of their livestock, mainly sheep and goats.

By breeding with selected southern Plains Zebras an attempt is being made to retrieve at least the genes responsible for the Quaggas colouration.

The project, if successful, will rectify a tragic mistake made over a hundred years ago through greed and short sightedness. Once again herds of "Quaggas" will roam the plains of the Karoo.

When the Quagga mare at Amsterdam Zoo died on 12 August 1883, it was not realised that she was the very last of her kind. Because of the confusion caused by the indiscriminate use of the term "Quagga" for any zebra, the true Quagga was hunted to extinction without this being realised until many years later.


Water colour on vellum parchment by Nicolas Marechal (1753 -1802),
painted at Paris in 1793 and illustrates the Quagga stallion
of Louis XIV menagerie at Versailles


The only Quagga to ever have been photographed alive
was the London Zoo mare. Five photographs are known,
taken by Frederick York and Frank Haes circa 1870

http://www.quaggaproject.org/

I don't see that much has changed, at least on their website, since a year or so ago when this topic came up before.

Oops, sorry. I didn't know the topic had been discussed before.

-Bob F.

I'd say they're making some pretty good progress as this foal was born in Jan 2005!

Best,

JohnTheGreek

Waaaaay cool!

Wow, very cool! I didn't realize that this project was that advanced.

quote:

Originally posted by BFaucett:
Oops, sorry. I didn't know the topic had been discussed before.

-Bob F.

Bob

I hadn't seen it before.

Thanks for putting it back up.

Very interesting, breeding back to "re-create" the sub-species.

Now hopefully the French are also succeeding with Aurochs.

Very cool.

JohnTheGreek,

Thanks for posting the chart! Looks like they are making some real progress.

-Bob F.

I have never seen this before. Very intresting
and good to see.
Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by BFaucett:
Oops, sorry. I didn't know the topic had been discussed before.

-Bob F.

Jeez, Bob. That must mean you have a life outside of AR.....unlike some.

OBTW- I knew nothing about it either. I found the topic interesting.

Dave

That foal does look like they're on the way. Hopefully this won't take much more than a decade to develope a stable population.

BTW, the germans back-bred the aurochs before WWII and populations are rather wide-spread on private land in Europe. On occasion they are even huntable on large land-holdings but how one is supposed to find them is beyond me and I've tried!