The quagga (Equus quagga quagga) is an extinct subspecies of
the Plains zebra, which was once found in great
numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of
the Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other
zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the
front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes
faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces
became wider, and the rear parts were a plain brown. The
name comes from a Khoikhoi word for zebra and is
onomatopoeic, being said to resemble the quagga's
call. The only quagga to have been photographed alive was a mare at
the Zoological Society of London's Zoo in Regent's Park in
1870.
The quagga was originally classified as an individual species,
Equus quagga, in 1778. Over the next 50 years
or so, many other zebras were described by
naturalists and explorers. Because of the great
variation in coat patterns (no two; zebras are
alike), taxonomists were left with a great number of
described "species", and no easy way to tell which of these were
true species, which were subspecies, and which were simply natural
variants.
Long before this confusion was sorted out, the quagga had
been hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to
preserve feed for domesticated stock. The last wild quagga was
probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in
captivity, a mare, died on August 12, 1883 at the
Artis Magistra in Amsterdam. Because of the confusion between
different zebra species, particularly among the general public, the
quagga had become extinct before it was realized that it appeared
to be a separate species.
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