The Quagga Story
The Extinct Barking Zebra.

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 Quagga was an actual "barking zebra" who became extinct on August 12, 1883. He was put into extinction by greed, ruthless hunting, and mankind's shameless short sightedness. But now, generations later, a devoted group of people in South Africa are working very hard at bringing Quagga back and hope to reintroduce him into the reserves of his former habitat, the plains of the Karoo.

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.

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

 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.

Learn more about the Quagga:
Quagga Breeding Project
BBC Online

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