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Q: How can a Quagga
be bred out of Zebras?
A: The Quagga was not an animal all on
it’s own, as the name might seem to imply. It was
a Zebra, and as modern DNA analysis has shown, not a seperate
zebra species either, but one of several subspecies (local
forms) of the Plains Zebra, of which most are still living.
Therefore selective breeding, aiming at retrieving Quagga
genes, believed to be still present in living Plains Zebra
populations, might eventually result in individuals which
have at least the exterior characteristics of the extinct
Quagga.
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Q: Could selective breeding be
used to re-breed other extinct animals?
A: Yes, but only if the extinct animal
was of the same species (gene pool) as still-living close
relatives. Usually subspecies do not look very different
from each other. However, in the case of the Plains Zebra
which has a huge distribution area from northern East Africa
to South Africa, populations at either end look very different
from each other. It is this marked difference in appearance
between the extinct Quagga and it’s northernmost relative,
the Grant or Boehm Zebra, which makes the re-breeding of
the Quagga desirable.
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Q: Why was the Quagga not fully-striped
like other Zebras?
A: There are different opinions about the
reason or purpose of the incomplete striping in the Quagga.
Usually colouration in animals is very useful to render
the animal less visible and therefore it gives some protection
against predators. In recent years it has been suggested
that zebra stripes give good protection against the attacks
of Tsetse flies and the transmission of diseases by these
flies. Because the Quagga lived outside the area where Tsetse
flies occur, it is argued that it could afford to lose it’s
stripes. There is, however, still a strong case for the
Quagga’s colouration having been useful as camouflage
in it’s habitat.
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Q: How did the Quagga Project come
about?
A: This unusual project evolved out of
taxidermy. Through the re-mounting of 4 of the 23 preserved
Quaggas between 1969 and 1981 and the examination of 22
of the preserved specimens, mainly in 1971, Reinhold Rau
got to closely observe the Quagga’s morphology. Being
familiar with the appearance of the Plains Zebra populations,
many similarities in stripe-pattern and colouration became
apparent between the extinct Quagga and certain individuals
in southern populations of Plains Zebras from Etosha National
Park in Namibia to the west, and Zululand in the east. These
similarities, together with some other factors, inspired
the attempt to breed southern Plains Zebras, aiming at retrieving
and concentrating Quagga characteristics. It took 12 years
to overcome many obstacles, especially strong criticism
from several scientists, before the breeding project got
off the ground in 1987 which aims at reversing the Quagga’s
extinction. |
