The extinct animal quagga is a project about it. Extinct animals of planet Earth: where did the quagga live? Camp Dolomite and surrounding wilderness
“The horses are lined, like school notebooks.” (Children's riddle).
Quagga (lat. Equus quagga quagga) (eng. Quagga). Photo by Nicolas Marechal
You don’t have to think long about the answer. Of course, these “lined horses” are zebras. On this moment There are 3 types of zebras: Grevy's zebra (lat. Equus grevyi), Burchell's zebra (lat. Equus quagga) and mountain zebra (lat. Equus zebra). The second and third species have several subspecies, one of which, the quagga, managed to exist only until 1883. Literally a couple of hundred years after its discovery, these animals were exterminated by hunters.
The last wild quagga was killed in 1878 in the Orange Republic of South Africa, and the last representative of this species living in the zoo died five years later - in 1883 at the Amsterdam Zoo.
Photo by Frank Haes So what was this extinct animal like? According to surviving descriptions, several photographs dating back to the second half of the 19th century, and 19 skins, it can be said that the quagga looked like a cross between a zebra, a horse and a donkey. If you look from the front - a zebra, from the back - a horse, and the legs are like those of a donkey, just as short and strong. But in structure and physique, the quagga was still closer to zebras.
These odd-toed ungulates got their name - “quagga” - because of the sounds they make, which are more reminiscent of the sound of “qua-kha” than the usual neighing. By the way, these wild animals were still tamed. As a result, they became not only a universal draft force, but also an excellent guard for sheep flocks. These animals sensed the approach of danger earlier than others and warned about it with loud sounds.
Photo by Frederick York At one time they inhabited vast areas of southern Africa. But don't be sad ahead of time. Science does not stand still. Back in the late 80s. In the 20th century, a project was launched to restore this species of animal. One of the options for such restoration is crossing various types animals. This is persistent, complex and painstaking work of many zoologists, breeders, geneticists, veterinarians and ecologists.
photo by Frederick York One of them is the South American scientist Reynold Rau. To study the scope of upcoming work, he decided to use more modern technologies. Rau took samples from skin and muscle remains stored in museums, which were then used to obtain and study the animal's DNA.
Photo by Frederick York These studies showed that, at the genetic level, quaggas are very close to common plains zebras. After this, the main work began on crossing animals that carry the characteristics of a quagga. As a result, 9 animals were bred through selection, which were then placed in their natural habitats - in a special camp located in national park Etosha in Namibia.
The result of the scientists' work is a modern quagga After a certain period of time, in 2005, a foal was born that bore an amazing resemblance to the extinct quagga (this does not mean that cubs had not been born before, they just did not have such an amazing resemblance to their extinct ancestor). Scientists even came to the conclusion that he resembles her even more than those 19 natural skins that, by some miracle, remained from “real” animals.
Now, more than 100 individuals of this species already live in the territory of this park, which, according to experimenters, are more similar to a quagga than the quagga itself.
Many of you are reading the stories of the English writer Mine Reed about the travels and adventures of a hunter in South Africa. The heroes of his books show extraordinary ingenuity and endurance, getting out of the most dangerous and hopeless situations in which they find themselves during hunting wanderings. One day, the family of a Dutch settler found themselves in a completely wild area. Their horses, bitten by the tsetse fly, became ill and died. But young hunters managed to catch and train quaggas, the most common South African ungulates, to saddle.
The last living quagga. Amsterdam Zoo, 1883
At first glance at the zebra quagga (lat. Equus quagga) it’s hard to get rid of the impression that in front of you is some kind of hybrid of a horse, donkey and zebra. The stripes on its head and neck make it look like a zebra, its light legs make it look like a donkey, and its solid dun croup resembles that of a horse. However, the physique, shape of the head, short erect mane and tail with a tassel at the end indicate that the animal is real, albeit unusually colored.
The literature has repeatedly provided information about tame, trained quaggas, but in general they are difficult to tame. They are wild, vicious, and defend themselves from enemies with powerful teeth and more often with front rather than hind hooves. There have been cases when a person received serious injuries from zebra bites.
Once upon a time, herds of thousands of quaggas shook the spaces of the South African steppe - the veld - with the thunder of their hooves. All travelers of the past knew that the quagga is the most normal look zebras living south of the Limpopo River. Like other relatives, she led a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving in search of food - herbaceous vegetation. During the period of seasonal migrations to new pastures, small schools of animals merged into large herds, often even mixed aggregations of different types herbivores.
At the end of the XVIII - early XIX century, the situation began to gradually change. The Dutch colonists, the Boers, who landed on the southern tip of the continent, began to push back the inhabitants wildlife further north, occupying the land for pastures, crops and farms. The first rifle shots sounded in the veld.
It is to this period that Mine Reed's narrative dates back. It would seem that the quagga was in no danger - she was a useless trophy, since she had no delicious meat, neither beautiful horns, like antelopes, nor valuable skin, like predators. Occasionally, white settlers fed quagga meat to native slaves, the skin of the animals was used for belts, and waterskins were sometimes made from the stomach. True, pastoralists considered the quagga, like other ungulates, a competitor to their livestock and at times staged grandiose round-ups, destroying hundreds of animals.
And in the middle of the 19th century the situation worsened even more. England took possession of the Cape Colony, the Boers were forced to move to interior areas South Africa. Now flaring up, now fading, battles took place between the Boers and the British, a constant war was waged by the Europeans and against the indigenous population. Farmers, traders, soldiers, and adventurers arrived from Europe. Finally, diamond placers and rich deposits of gold, lead, and uranium ores were discovered in South Africa. The rapid development of the territory began, and mines, settlements, and cities arose in once empty places. Virgin land for a short time turned into a densely populated industrial area.
The most famous of the African animals that became extinct due to man was the quagga. The last individuals were killed around 1880, and the world's last quagga died in 1883 at the Amsterdam Zoo.
Quagga. In this article I want to continue my column about animals that once inhabited our Earth a very long time ago, but unfortunately did not live to see our time. Today I will tell you about Quagga.
The quagga is an odd-toed ungulate that was once considered a separate species, but in our time it has been proven that this is a subspecies of Burchell's zebra. The quagga and the modern zebra differ only in that the zebra has a completely striped body color, and the quagga had stripes only in front (the back is the color of a bay horse). The body length of this animal is 180 cm. South Africa is recognized as its habitat. The Boers (the people who inhabited the lands where quaggas lived in those days) killed them because of their durable skin. Also, the quagga is practically the only extinct animal that was tamed by humans and was used to... protect herds of other domestic animals. They sensed the approach of a predator much earlier than other domestic animals (sheep,) and warned people with a loud cry of “kuaha,” which is how they got their name.
Unfortunately, the last one to live in wild environment was killed back in 1878, and in 1883, humanity lost the last quagga in captivity (in the Amsterdam Zoo). All that's left of the quagga is 19 skins, a small amount of skulls, 2-3 photographs and several paintings.
In 1987, with the participation of expert zoologists, veterinarians, breeders and geneticists, a project to restore the quagga was launched; as a result of long-term work, 9 animals of this species were bred by selection, which were placed in Etosha Park (this is in Namibia) for observation.
In January 2005, the stallion Henry, a representative of the third generation, finally saw the light of day. quagga. This baby looked much more like a typical quagga than some museum exhibits made from real quagga skin. Scientists are now more confident than ever that the quagga restoration project is a success and that quaggas will soon inhabit the vast expanses of South Africa again.
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Project Quagga
In 1987, a project was launched to restore the quagga as a biological (sub)species, Quagga Breeding Project. The project was organized with the participation of experts - zoologists, breeders, veterinarians and geneticists. For the project, 19 zebra specimens from Namibia and South Africa were selected, characterized by a reduced number of stripes on the back of the body. Based on this population, nine animals were bred through selection (fixation of the trait), which were placed for observation in Etosha Park, Namibia, and in a special camp located near the town of Robertson, Cape Nature Conservancy farm Vrolijkheid.
On January 20, 2005, a representative of the third generation of quagga was born - the stallion Henry, who is so similar to a typical quagga that some experts are sure that he is even more similar to a quagga than some museum exhibits of this animal, made from genuine skins, but using skulls of horses or donkeys and other deviations from the original. One of the founders of the project, naturalist Reinhold Rau (English)Russian, was confident that the project would be successful, and soon the restored quaggas would be resettled throughout South Africa. However, it is worth noting that these so-called "Rau quaggas" are genetically different from historical quaggas, which has led to criticism of the project.
see also
- Zebroid is a hybrid of a zebra and a horse, pony or donkey.
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Excerpt characterizing Quagga
The very first I met was a young woman who I immediately liked for some reason. She was very sad, and I felt that somewhere deep in her soul an unhealed wound was “bleeding”, which did not allow her to leave peacefully. The stranger first appeared when I was sitting comfortably curled up in my father’s chair and enthusiastically “absorbed” a book that was not allowed to be taken out of the house. As usual, enjoying reading with great pleasure, I was so deeply immersed in an unfamiliar and so exciting world that I did not immediately notice my unusual guest.First there was a disturbing feeling of someone else's presence. The feeling was very strange - as if a light cool breeze suddenly blew in the room, and the air around was filled with a transparent vibrating fog. I raised my head and saw a very beautiful, young blonde woman right in front of me. Her body glowed slightly with a bluish light, but otherwise she looked quite normal. The stranger looked at me without looking away, and seemed to be begging for something. Suddenly I heard:
- Please help me…
And, although she did not open her mouth, I heard the words very clearly, they just sounded a little different, the sound was soft and rustling. And then I realized that she was talking to me in exactly the same way as I had heard before - the voice sounded only in my head (which, as I later learned, was telepathy).
“Help me...” it rustled quietly again.
- How can I help you? – I asked.
“You can hear me, you can talk to her...” the stranger answered.
– Who should I talk to? – I asked.
“With my baby,” was the answer.
Her name was Veronica. And, as it turned out, this sad and such beautiful woman died of cancer almost a year ago, when she was only thirty years old, and her little six-year-old daughter, who thought that her mother had abandoned her, did not want to forgive her for this and still suffered very deeply from it. Veronica's son was too young when she died and did not understand that his mother would never return again... and that now he would always be put to bed at night by someone else's hands, and his favorite lullaby would be sung to him by some stranger... But he I was still too young and had no idea how much pain such a cruel loss could bring. But with his six-year-old sister, things were completely different... That's why this sweet woman couldn't calm down and just leave while her little daughter was suffering so deeply and childishly...
- How will I find her? – I asked.
“I’ll take you,” the answer whispered.
Only then did I suddenly notice that when she moved, her body easily seeped through furniture and other solid objects, as if it were woven from dense fog... I asked if it was difficult for her to be here? She said yes, because it was high time for her to leave... I also asked if it was scary to die? She said that it’s not scary to die, it’s more scary to watch those whom you leave behind, because there is so much you still want to tell them, but, unfortunately, nothing can be changed... I felt very sorry for her, so sweet, but helpless, and so unhappy... And I really wanted to help her, but, unfortunately, I didn’t know how?
The next day, I calmly returned home from my friend, with whom we usually practiced playing the piano together (since I didn’t have my own at that time). Suddenly, feeling some strange inner push, I, for no apparent reason, turned in the opposite direction and walked along a completely unfamiliar street... I didn’t walk for long until I stopped at a very pleasant house, completely surrounded by a flower garden. There, inside the courtyard, on a small playground, sat a sad, absolutely tiny girl. She looked more like a miniature doll than a living child. Only this “doll” for some reason was infinitely sad... She sat completely motionless and looked indifferent to everything, as if at that moment the world for her it simply did not exist.
The quagga is an extinct species of plains zebra that lived in South Africa. The last wild animal was killed in 1878. And the last representative of the species died on August 12, 1883 at the Amsterdam Zoo. In London the last animal died in 1872, and in Berlin in 1873. There are 23 effigies around the world. There was 1 more sample, but it was destroyed during the Second World War in Königsberg. Quaggas are the first extinct animals whose DNA has been studied. Accordingly, this species can be considered a subspecies of Burchell's zebra.
The body length of these animals reached 250 cm with a height at the withers of 125-135 cm. The pattern of the skin was unique. It was striped in front, like all zebras, and the back of the body was a solid bay color. The stripes were brown and white. On the head and neck they had bright color. And then they faded, mixed with the red-brown color of the back and sides and disappeared. There was a wide dark stripe on the back. It also had a mane with brown and white stripes.
Behavior
These zebras lived in herds of 30-50 individuals. In the first half of the 19th century, they were used by people as domesticated animals. But due to their unstable nature, the stallions were castrated and were mainly used for transporting goods. Farmers found another use for them. Quaggas were engaged in protecting livestock. When danger appeared, they behaved aggressively and warned the cattle with loud alarm cries. In European zoos, representatives of the species behaved more obediently and calmly. In captivity they lived up to 20 years. Most famous centenarian lived 21 years 4 months and died in 1872.
These animals could very easily be found and killed. Therefore, early Dutch settlers shot them for their meat and hides. Also, the quagga could not withstand competition with livestock, which filled all areas suitable for food. Therefore, representatives of the species practically disappeared from their habitat by the end of the 50s of the 19th century. Some individuals were captured and sold to zoos in Europe. Some far-sighted people tried to save unique animals, and therefore began to breed them in captivity. But this idea ended in failure at that time.
Project Quagga
When the tight genetic link Between quaggas and modern zebras, the idea arose to restore an extinct species. Therefore, in 1987, Project Quagga was launched in South Africa. It was headed by Reinhold Rau. Two dozen plains zebras living in South Africa and Namibia were selected. In this case, animals with a reduced number of stripes in the posterior part of the body were selected. As a result of this, 9 animals were bred through selection, more or less corresponding in their appearance quaggum. The first very similar foal was born in 1988.
In 2006, already in the 4th generation, an even more quagga-like foal was born. As a result, the people implementing the project felt that it was going well. At the same time, there are many critics who argue that selective animals are genetically different from extinct animals, and therefore this experiment is a dummy. That is, we are talking about ordinary zebras, only outwardly reminiscent of long-extinct representatives of the species. There is another option - cloning. But this is a matter for the future.
