"Bringing back" the Quagga
 Little
did the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam know at the time, but they housed the
last individual of the quaggas, a mare. During her 16 years at the zoo, settlers
in Southern Africa were almost nearing the end of hunting the quaggas into
extinction. When the mare died on 12 August 1883, the quagga was effectively
extinct.
It was only much later on that scientists realised that the quagga was
extinct. But though the quagga is gone, some genes survived...
Species or sub-species
 The
quaggas looked like a zebra in the front half of its body and at the back like a
horse, in other words, it had zebra stripes on the neck and shoulders and pale,
brown hindquarters. Quaggas represented the most southern of the many zebra
populations in Africa. They lived in the Karoo and southern Orange Free State.
The question about the Quagga's relationship to the 3 zebra species (Grevy
zebra, Mountain zebra and Plains zebra) had long been debated by zoologists.
Some considered it to have been one of the Plains zebra species, on the grounds
of its morphology and distribution, while others felt that since it was
described in 1788 by Gmelin as a species, and because it had become extinct
before its true taxonomic position was established, it would be safer to treat
it as a fourth species of zebra.
Answering the questions
 These
questions were answered in 1984. In the early 1980s dry Quagga flesh and blood
was sent to the geneticist Dr Oliver Ryder of the Zoological Society of San
Diego, California. These tissue samples were collected during the dismantling
and re-mounting of 4 Quagga museum specimens in 1969 and 1980 by taxonomist
Reinhold Rau. Dr Ryder shared some of the tissues with Dr Russel Higuchi and Pro
Gerold Lowestein, all connected to the University of California.
It was a big surprise when portions of mitochondrial DNA were found and
extracted by Russel Higuchi and proteins by Gerold Lowenstein. These were
compared with equivalent tissues of living zebra, which revealed that the
relationship between extinct Quagga and living Plains zebras was closer than the
relationship between the 2 subspecies of the African Wild ass (Nubien and
Somalia).
What had not been thought possible, had suddenly happened! The question about
the Quagga's relationship to other zebras had been answered: the Quagga was NOT
a species in its own right, but one of the Plains zebra subspecies.
Extinction is forever, but not for the quagga
Despite highly sophisticated genetic manipulations being used and
reproduction in animals and plants being supported and enhanced through
intricate techniques, extinction is still as final as it has always been. If a
species of animal or plant has disappeared from the earth, either through
natural causes, or through mankind's activities, the loss is irreversible.
However, the extinct Quagga was not a zebra species of its own but one of
several subspecies or local forms of the plains zebra. This fact makes a big
difference - the Quagga's extinction may not be forever! An exciting breeding
project has been ongoing since 1987 which aims at reversing the Quaggas
extinction.
The Quagga Re-Breeding Project
The Quagga project attempts to breed through selection a population of plains
zebras, which in its external appearance, and possibly genetically as well, will
be closer, if not identical to the former population known as 'Quagga'. That
project was finally started in 1987 by a group of dedicated individuals from
various scientific disciplines.
Specially selected zebras were caught at Etosha National Park, northern
Namibia and at several reserves in KwaZulu, Natal and brought to the Western
Cape. And so began a massive undertaking to concentrate the still present, but
diluted and dispersed Quagga characteristics in some southern Plains
zebras.
The first foal was born on the 9th of December 1988. During the successive
years, further selected breeding stock taken from Etosha and Zululand have been
added. The first foal of the second offspring generation (F2 generation) was
born in February 1997. Reproductive maturity is reached only at two to three
years in mares and four to five years in stallions.
In June 2000 South African National Parks joined in with the Quagga Project.
Several Quagga Project zebras have already been introduced into the Karoo
National Park and others, situated in the former distribution area of the Quagga.
These "Quagga in the making" have adapted very well to their new
surroundings and their numbers are growing. Selective breeding is continuing in
these parks as well as in breeding groups outside of national parks.
The project is succeeding. According to Rau in July 2003 the total number of
Quagga Project zebras outside of national parks is 76:58 adults and 18 immature
animals. They live at 12 different places in the Western Cape. The selective
breeding has recently entered the third offspring generation with the birth of
two foals on 3 March and 5 May 2003.
As expected, the concentration of Quagga characteristics increases with
successive generations. To achieve this, selected individuals are exchanged from
time to time between breeding groups, or put together in new, additional
breeding groups.
Further genetic studies
 Further
genetic studies, using tissue samples from 12 of the 23 preserved (stuffed)
original Quaggas from various European museums, is in progress in Germany
presently. The aim of this study is to determine the degree of genetic variation
within these specimens from the original Quagga population."
How close re-bred Quaggas will eventually be to the original Quaggas
genetically, can probably not be determined, as only portions of the
mitochondrial DNA of the Quagga are known, and not its nuclear DNA.
However, since the coat -pattern characteristics are the only criteria by
which the Quagga is identified, re-bred animals that demonstrate these
coat-pattern characteristics could justifiably be called Quaggas.
It is expected that this selective breeding will, with successive
generations, reduce the high degree of individual variation, both in colour and
in extent of striping, which are characteristics of the southern plains zebra.
Eventually individuals should emerge whose coat-pattern characters closely
resemble that of the extinct Quagga.
Who knows - once again herds of 'Quaggas' will roam the plains of the Karoo.
Sources:
Article adapted from text by Reinhold Rau
http://www.museums.org.za/sam/quagga/quagga.htm
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/10_00/Quagga_project.shtml
|
