Equus quagga quagga (Quagga)

[another specialist]

GBE004314A
QUAGGA

MHA005626A
QUAGGA foal

www.nhpa.co.uk/photokeywords1.html

search the above images on this website use the image numbers

[Peter]

Other threads on this extinct subspecies of the plain zebra:
Selective Breeding Board - The Quagga Project
Selective Breeding Board - Quagga project goes well, photo of foal!

[Melanie]

Here is another tread in this board

extinctanimals.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=artiodactyla&action=display&thread=1115322757

[another specialist]

Definately a few threads here and there on quaggas...
At least this way we are linking them all up for easy reference...

[another specialist]

www.riawinters.com/wildlife/quaggas.html

[another specialist]

Telling a quagga by its stripes - extinct South African animal

Science News, August 3, 1985 by Julie Ann Miller


If, in a mix-up at a costume shop, a couple were issued the front half of a zebra suit and the back half of a horse, it could be considered a quagga disguise. But if the masqueraders were pressed as to whether they were more horse or more zebra, the latest biochemical research advises them to insist on zebra.

The quagga, a South African animal extinct for more than 100 years, has been a source of confusion among taxonomists. Some contend, on the basis of the quagga skins preserved in museums, that this front-striped animal is a zebra, either a fourth zebra species or a variant of the Plains zebra, whose hindquarter stripes are dim. But others have argued that the quagga's teeth and skeleton indicate that its nearest relative is the true horse.


Biochemists joined the fray last year when muscle tissue was obtained from a salt-preserved quagga pelt in a West German museum. The tissue yielded both proteins and genes that could be analyzed (SN:6/9/84, p. 356).

Now the analysis has yielded some results. According to "remarkably concordant" findings on the proteins and on the genes, the quagga was a subspecies of the Plains zebra, says Jerold M. Lowenstein of the University of California at San Francisco. He looked at the binding between a sample of quagga proteins and mixtures of antibodies that bind to blood-serum proteins of each of the extant Equus species. The quagga sample bound more of the antibodies against Plains zebra serum than against the other species. Lowenstein calculates that the quagga relationship with the Plains zebra is six times closer than its relationship with the two other zebra species.

"We had to use special techniques to show the difference," Lowenstein told SCIENCE NEWS. "There is 99 percent identity on the protein level. All the [Equus] species diverged within the past 5 million years, which is only yesterday in evolutionary terms."

The quagga-Plains zebra relationship is further supported by the analysis of quagga mitochondrial genes performed by Russell Higuchi and Allan Wilson at the University of California at Berkeley. They find seven times as great a difference between quagga and Mountain zebra DNA as they do between quagga and Plains zebra DNA.

"Stripes, the molecules tell us, do make a zebra," Lowenstein concludes in the July 18 NEW SCIENTIST, "and the half-striped quagga was a Plains zebra."

COPYRIGHT 1985 Science Service, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

www.gradewinner.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_v128/ai_3884543

[another specialist]

planet-mammiferes.org/

[Peter]

The very last Quagga!
The last captive Quagga, a mare, died on 12 August 1883 in Amsterdam Zoo, where she had lived since 9 May 1867. It was not realised that this Quagga mare 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.

This specimen in now in the collection of the Zoological Museum Amsterdam. Also the skull of the same individual is in that collection. It appears from Hilzheimer (1912) that the foot bones of this specimen were at Stuttgart but they are no longer there, nor is there any record of them.

[another specialist]

the last specimen in captivity was at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam to be exact.

[another specialist]

The last wild quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s

[Peter]

anotherspecialist said:

the last specimen in captivity was at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam to be exact.

True, here a website of that zoo: www.artis.nl

[another specialist]

Thanks Peter for the link

[RSN]

Images on Arkive (http://www.arkive.org):







A poster about quagga:



Equus quagga quagga Boddaert, 1785 (Mammalia - Equidae)

Informations

Status

Classified as Extinct (EX) by the IUCN Red List 2002 (1).

Description

The quagga roamed the plains of South Africa until the late 19th Century when it became extinct. There is some debate as to whether the quagga represented a separate species of zebra or merely a subspecies of the plains zebra (Equus burchelli), which survives today (1). However Quaggas, with their dark stripes on the head and neck merging into brown coloured hindquarters (2) and pale legs devoid of stripes (3), looked quite distinctive compared to the zebras that we recognise today (2). As with other zebra species, the patterns of the stripes were unique to each individual (2).

Range

Quaggas were found in the Karoo and southern Free State of South Africa, the date of the disappearance of the last wild animal is unknown but the final quagga died at the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam in 1883.

Habitat

Previously found in the arid and temperate grasslands of South Africa.

Biology

In common with the plains zebra it is likely that quaggas were found in groups, known as harems, consisting of a number of adult females and led by a dominant male (2). Both males and females leave their natal group when they reach sexual maturity; the composition of adult harems is relatively stable over time with strong social bonds between individuals (4). Foals were born year-round although there appeared to be a peak season in early summer, from December to January (2).

As with other equid species, the quagga diet consisted primarily of grasses. Herds tended to migrate to longer grass pastures during the day to feed, returning to areas of shorter grass at night where potential predators had less cover (2).

Threats

South Africa became renowned for hunting in the 19th Century, and was known as a 'hunters paradise' (3). Many species, including the quagga, were persecuted for sport and to supply the leather trade with unusual hides (3). In addition, on the sparse, dry grasslands of the Karoo, farmers regarded the quagga as a serious competitor for grazing land with introduced sheep and cattle. During this time, the term 'quagga' in Afrikaans was used for all zebras, and this produced confusion; the uniqueness of this particular zebra was not fully recognised until it was too late (3).

Conservation

A controversial plan to 'retrieve' the quagga is now being carried out in South Africa by the Quagga Project (3). In 1984, evidence was published from the analysis of mitochondrial DNA (preserved on a museum specimen), which suggested that the extinct 'quagga' was in fact a subspecies of the plains zebra (Equus burchelli), rather than a distinct species (3). This added fresh hope to the idea that selective breeding of particular plains zebras would lead eventually to an animal resembling the long-lost quagga in appearance. Under the leadership of Reinhold Rau, the project began in earnest in 1987; the second generation of foals have now been successfully reared and some of these do have unusual coat patterns. Some authorities criticize the project for appearing to demonstrate that it is possible to bring a species back from extinction. However, proponents believe that a high profile project, which involves the return of these zebras to the grasslands where quaggas once roamed, may help to raise awareness of the importance of the fragile Karoo grassland of Southern Africa .

Source:
www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Equus_quagga/more_info.html

[another specialist]

thanks RSN for info and especially the images

[Peter]

Indeed! I hadn't seen these images before! Thanks.

[another specialist]

anotherspecialist said:

GBE004314A
QUAGGA

MHA005626A
QUAGGA foal

www.nhpa.co.uk/photokeywords1.html

search the above images on this website use the image numbers

[RSN]

thanks RSN for info and especially the images

Indeed! I hadn't seen these images before! Thanks.

You are welcome!

Another image:



The information disponible in Animal Diversity Web:

By Debra L. Rodriguez

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Equidae
Genus: Equus
Species: Equus quagga

Geographic Range
A native of southern Africa, the quagga used to occur in vast herds in the Karoo regions of Cape Province and the southern part of Orange Free State. It is now extinct. (South Africa's Threatened Wildlife, 1993)

Biogeographic Regions:
ethiopic (native ).

Habitat
Quaggas were often found in arid to temperate grasslands, and sometimes wetter pastures.

Terrestrial Biomes:
desert or dune ; savanna or grassland .

Physical Description
Mass
250 to 300 kg
(550 to 660 lbs)

The quagga (Equus quagga) is recently extinct. It was closely related to horses and zebras. These zebras averaged 53 inches in height and weighed between 500 and 700 pounds. The Quagga was a relative of the Burchell's Zebra, Equus burchelli, and differed mainly in the degree of striping. The Burchell's Zebra has black stripes on a white background, with brownish "shadow" stripes in between. There is much variability in this pattern, and some Burchell's Zebras have virtually unstriped hindquarters. Museum specimens of the Quagga have dark stripes on the head and neck, but further back the stripes become paler and the interspaces darker, until they merge into a plain brownish color. It is also interesting to note that zebra stripes are like human fingerprints -- no two zebras have the same stripe pattern, which makes it easy to identify individuals. (Planet Wildlife, 1993)

Some key physical features:
endothermic ; bilateral symmetry .

Reproduction
Quaggas were polygynous animals, meaning that there was mature male for each group,or "harem," of females. To become a harem stallion, a male had to abduct fillies in heat one at a time from their father's herds. Fillies began ovulating and advertising estrus by adopting a distinctive posture between one and two years of age. Many stallions gathered around a herd that included an estrus filly and fought for her with the herd stallion, and with each other. This occurred 5 days every month for about a year until the filly finally conceived. Though foals may be born in any month, there was a definite annual birth/mating peak early in December to January, which corresponds to the rain season in East Africa. Mares that were in good condition reproduced at 2-year intervals, having their first foal at 3 to 3.5 years. (Skeleton, 1992)

Key reproductive features:
iteroparous ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous .

Behavior
Quaggas lived in large herds that almost always contained life-long family members. When members of the herd became separated, the family stallion located the stray using a unique call that was taken up by the rest of the herd. Should any member be sick or crippled, the whole herd protected it by adjusting its pace to accommodate the slowest member. These families had home ranges as small as 11 mi square (30 km square) in the best habitat, but they could extend it to over 232 mi square (600 km square) in migratory populations. (Skeleton, 1992) Quaggas were a somewhat diurnal species. At night they preferred to be on short pastures relatively safe from ambush. Though they grazed individually an hour or so at a time at night, they moved about very little. While the herd slept, at least one herd member remained standing and alert. At daybreak in warm weather, herds began filing to pastures of longer grass and could cover over 10 mi (17 km) before settling for another night.

The mass movements of herds occurred between pastures and sleeping grounds, stopping for water at midday. (Hannover Zoo Animals, 1991)

For quaggas, like in all zebras, there was always a daily ritual in hygiene. Individuals stood side by side nibbling on one another's hard to reach areas such as the neck, mane, and back, to rid each other of parasites. Often the oxbird could be seen riding on the animals' backs, providing the same service. (Hannover Zoo Animals, 1991)

Key behaviors:
motile .

Food Habits
The quagga was a successful grazer though they often competed with the more numerous wildebeest which frequently occurred in the same areas. Quaggas were often the first of the grazers to enter tall grass vegetation or possibly wet pastures. (Skeleton, 1992)

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
The Quagga was hunted to extinction by hunters and European settlers, who used their skins for grain bags, and prized them for their colors and patterns.

Conservation Status
The last Quagga died in the Amsterdam Zoo in Holland on 12 August 1883. The last wild Quagga in South Africa was probably killed by hunters few years before that, perhaps in 1878. (S. Africas Threatened Wildlife, 1993) Though the South African Red Data Book refers to the Quagga as an extinct species, recent evidence has confirmed that it was actually a subspecies of the Burchell's Zebra. The South African Museum in Cape Town has now embarked on a project to selectively breed Burchell's Zebras with minimal striping on their hindquarters, until the same color pattern as the Quagga can be perhaps be re-created.


Sources:
animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Equus_quagga.html
www.paleocraft.com/quagga.html

[RSN]

Searching on quagga images in Yahoo, some months ago, or year, I´ve found this peculiar pic:







This last is called ''diamond in the rough''


They are from a hunting site (I particulary dont like it, of course). Here is the link for more info:

www.huntingal.com/fisher/zebrastory/go

When I found it in small scale on Yahoo image finder, it really looks for me a quagga...

[another specialist]

lots of pics like that in the quagga project website

www.quaggaproject.org/

[RSN]

I know, the selective breeding. Scientists cant recover a bit of DNA of preserved specimens of quagga and add it to modified plains zebra cells?

The last image looks like a okapi, no?