Equus quagga
quagga

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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.

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.