Extinct quagga is (almost) back from the dead

Photo: VOA news

The genes expressed in the quagga could be found in zebras, and could manifest themselves through selective breeding.

Brilio.net/en - Genetic engineering has brought back the once extinct quagga, or so to speak. The South African cousin of the zebra was last seen in the 1880s, as European settlers heavily hunted the animal with the unusual name until the point of extinction.

The quagga has stripes but unlike the zebra these stripes are only found on the upper half of their bodies. Their lower half is brown. Using the remaining skins of quagga, scientists in South Africa were able to determine that the animal was a sub-species of the zebra.

Eric Harley, the leader of the Quagga Project and a professor at Cape Town University, hypothesised that the genes expressed in the quagga could be found in zebras, and could manifest themselves through selective breeding. As new groups of foals are born, the distinct colourings have gradually become more defined and unique. The project was started in 1987 with the intention of breeding a selection of plains zebra to look like, and possibly be identical to the now extinct quagga.

"The progress of the project has in fact followed that prediction. And in fact we have over the course of 4, 5 generations seen a progressive reduction in striping, and lately an increase in the brown background colour showing that our original idea was in fact correct," says Harley.

While Harley and his team have surely created some buzz, it has not gone without critics. Some are saying that all the scientists have done is create discoloured zebras as the experiment doesnt take into consideration ecological adaptions or behavioural differences in the original quagga.

As these animals may not be genetically the same to the original quagga, they are named Rau quaggas, after Reinhald Rau who was one of the projects originators. The creators of the project are aware that they may never be able to fully restore the quagga but they are still optimistic about their efforts.

If we can retrieve the animals or retrieve at least the appearance of the quagga, the we can say weve righted a wrong.

(Reported by Ivana Lucic)

(brl/tis)