The Quagga: A Fascinating Tale of Extinction and Possible Resurrection

Once upon a time, there was a mysterious creature known as the quagga. It lived in what is now known as South Africa. Sadly, the quagga is no longer with us. It has been extinct for over a hundred years. Its story, however, continues to captivate scientists and nature lovers alike.

The quagga was a unique and beautiful animal. It had the body of a horse and the stripes of a zebra, but only on its front half. The back half of its body was brown and looked more like a horse. This distinct appearance made the quagga particularly fascinating.

So, how did the quagga become extinct? The answer lies in human activity. In the 19th century, settlers began to explore and colonize South Africa. They hunted many animals, including the quagga, for their meat and hides. Over time, the quagga population declined drastically, until the last one died in captivity in 1883. It was a sad end for such a magnificent creature.

However, the story doesn’t end there. In recent years, there has been talk of resurrecting the quagga through a process called selective breeding. This involves using the genes of existing animals that are similar to the quagga and trying to recreate its distinct appearance.

The idea of bringing back an extinct animal may seem like something out of a science fiction story, but it is a real possibility. Scientists have successfully resurrected other extinct species, such as the Pyrenean ibex, through cloning techniques. The quagga could be next.

But should we bring back the quagga? This is a question that divides scientists and conservationists. Some argue that resurrecting the quagga would be a valuable step towards undoing the damage caused by humans and helping to restore the balance of nature. Others, however, worry about the ethical implications and potential risks of playing “God” with nature.

As I delve deeper into this subject, I find myself torn. On one hand, the quagga was a beautiful creature that deserves a second chance. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if there are more pressing issues that deserve our attention and resources.

I invite you to join me on this journey of exploration and contemplation. In the next part of this series, we will delve into the science behind resurrecting the quagga and the arguments for and against this controversial idea. Strap in, because we’re about to embark on an extraordinary adventure!

The project I’m speaking of is all about correcting a terrible error that happened more than one hundred years ago. It was a mistake born out of selfishness and a lack of long-term thinking. The hope is that if this effort to bring back the quagga is successful, we will once again see herds of animals that look just like the original quagga wandering freely on the grasslands of the Karoo.

Imagine if you could revive an extinct animal. Sounds crazy, right? People might call you mad or compare you to Frankenstein. But what if the creature you brought back was a unique zebra? And what if the person doing it wasn’t a villain, but a taxidermist who saw the extinction of the quagga as a tragedy?

This is a story about one person’s mission to correct this mistake. It’s a tale of determination and an ambitious breeding project that might just resurrect an iconic South African animal.

Let’s talk about the quagga.

Imagine a zebra that took a turn down an unusual path. That’s the quagga—a zebra with a distinct appearance that once roamed the vast plains of the Great Karoo. Despite its zebra-like characteristics, it puzzled scientists for a long time. They didn’t see a zebra; they saw a different horse-like species called Equidae.

But, interestingly enough, the quagga was later discovered to be a subpopulation of the plains zebra, not a unique species, thanks to the tireless efforts of one determined taxidermist. It took a hundred years after the extinction of the quagga to reveal this truth. And, of course, a bit of luck didn’t hurt either.

Reinhold Rau, the taxidermist in question, dedicated his entire career to studying preserved quagga specimens. He strongly believed that the quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra, even though most of the scientific community disagreed with him.

Back in the day, the quagga used to roam the vast plains of the Karoo. It was tough out there, with limited grazing pastures and intense competition. Unfortunately, humans ruthlessly hunted them down, leading to their extinction in the wild. The last quagga to ever exist passed away in the year 1883 at the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam.

‘Someone needs to make it right’

So, I’m Julius Rau, and I came to South Africa from Germany in 1951. I was one of the seven taxidermists brought in to mount mammals and birds for the natural history museum in Cape Town. Among all the other animals, there was this shabbily put-together quagga foal. Something about it caught my attention.

In an extraordinary act of devotion, Rheinhold Rau preserved the memory of a quagga foal that he mounted. Rau possessed an innate sense that the extinction of this species was an unfairness, even before it became widely acknowledged as such. March Turnbull, the coordinator of the Quagga Project, expressed that “Rau seemed to sense that something was amiss before it was recognized by others.”

Not only did Rau re-mount a poorly stuffed quagga in 1959, but he also meticulously examined 21 out of the 23 remaining quagga mounts in existence. His unconventional stance on the quagga’s extinction as a monumental tragedy set him apart from his peers. Furthermore, Rau believed that the quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra, which can be found across the continent.

I want you to know something important: many scientists who speak English were influenced by the way animals look, which is called morphology,” March explained. “They thought that because this zebra looked so different from other zebras, it must be a completely different species.”

Rau, who was from Germany, wasn’t as convinced by this way of thinking. But when March told a story from Rau’s childhood, it made a little more sense why he felt that way.

When Rau was a kid in the 1930s, he went to a circus near Frankfurt. At the circus, there was an animal called an auroch. This bull used to roam all around Europe, but it went extinct in the 17th century.

Hey there! Have you ever heard of the Heck brothers, Lutz and Hein? They were convinced that they could revive the powerful auroch, a type of ancient cattle that had gone extinct. So, they came up with an interesting plan. They decided to mix Spanish fighting cattle with longhorns and other cattle breeds to create a new breed that looked like the auroch but was genetically unique.

Look at this picture of Rau with the quagga foal he found at the Cape Town Museum.

But something else caught Rau’s attention – a book called Grosswild im Etoshaland by Lutz Heck, published in 1955. It suggested that if we bred carefully with the plains zebra, we could create a quagga that looked exactly the same. At the time, Lutz Heck still saw the quagga as a separate species.

A species that never really existed

In the 1980s, Rau stumbled upon an article by RG Higuchi from the University of California. Higuchi was working on this new and exciting thing called DNA sequencing. This discovery motivated Rau to reach out and get in touch with Higuchi.

I was absolutely convinced that the quagga was just another type of the plains zebra. To prove my theory, I would often compare hides from both animals side by side. It was a puzzling mystery that I was desperate to solve.

That’s when I got in touch with Oliver Ryder, a geneticist at the San Diego Zoo who had similar ideas. He was intrigued by my project and shared my assumptions. I reached out to him and he told me that he could give it a shot if I had a sample. Luckily, I had a sample from a 140-year-old quagga that I had kept in a petri-dish for over a decade at the Natural History Museum of Mainz in Germany.

So, get this! Rau sends Higuchi a petri-dish containing a piece of dried muscle and reconnective tissue. And you won’t believe what Higuchi’s team does next—they extract the DNA from it! Pretty cool, right? They focus on the mitochondrial DNA, which is only passed from mothers to their offspring. By sequencing it, they uncover the quagga’s maternal ancestry and compare it to that of the plains zebra.

Guess what? The results back up Rau’s initial assumptions! And get this—these results were published in a super famous scientific journal called Nature. Can you believe it? This study was groundbreaking because it was the first time anyone had successfully recovered a clonable DNA sequence from the remains of an extinct species. And guess what else? This achievement played a crucial role in using DNA to answer questions about paternity and help with forensic investigations. Pretty impressive stuff, huh?

On June 5, 1984, I saw something incredible. The New York Times had a big story on the cover. It was about the quagga, a special animal. They did something amazing – they figured out the order of the quagga’s DNA! This news was so important that people all over the world were talking about it. It even became popular in movies. There was a book called Jurassic Park that came out in 1990. In the book, they talked about how the quagga’s DNA sequencing was a big deal. It gave scientists the idea to try cloning dinosaur DNA. Can you believe it?

But there was still one thing missing. We needed to bring the quagga back to life. Maybe one day, they will roam the plains of the Karoo again. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Hey there! Let me tell you about something fascinating called the Quagga Project. It’s a project that has been going on for 35 years, and it’s all about bringing back a special creature called the Quagga. So, what’s the deal with this Quagga?

Well, the Quagga is an extinct animal that looks kind of like a horse mixed with a zebra. It used to live in South Africa, but sadly, it disappeared a long time ago. But here’s the cool part – scientists are trying to bring it back!

How are they doing it, you ask? It’s all about something called selective breeding. This means that scientists are choosing Quaggas that have traits similar to the original ones and getting them to have babies together. Over generations, they hope to recreate a Quagga-like animal.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why would they want to do that? Well, there are a few reasons. First of all, bringing back the Quagga could help us learn more about its habitat and the ecosystems it lived in. It could also give us a chance to study and understand extinct animals better.

But that’s not all. The Quagga Project also aims to bring back some of the unique biodiversity that was lost when the Quagga disappeared. By reintroducing Quagga-like animals into the wild, they hope to restore balance and diversity to the ecosystems where they once roamed.

So, there you have it – the Quagga Project in a nutshell. It’s an exciting endeavor that combines science, conservation, and a bit of detective work to try and bring back a species that has been gone for a long time. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll be able to see a Quagga-like animal running free in the wild!

Make sure to keep an eye out for Part II of this series, where we’ll dive deeper into the Quagga Project and see how things are going today. Stay tuned!

Until next time,

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Pictures: The Quagga Project