Resurrecting the Quagga

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Panthera1981

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Hello everyone!

With the recent findings and discoveries on quagga ancestry, I'm wondering whether it would be possible to bring the (sub)species back?
From what I've read, it would appear to be more straightforward than resurrecting other extinct fauna.

Any thoughts?
 
The 'Quagga Project' in South Africa has been working along these lines for a couple of decades now. They have used Zebras from existing South African populations of Plains Zebras for this selective breeding project. They are now into about the fourth generation of breeding. Look on the 'Quagga Project' website for details.

While they claim to have already produced animals resembling Quaggas, I would dispute this. What they are producing is increasingly stripeless 'white' zebras. They admit themselves they have got nowhere so far with recreation of the dark brown body colour, which was the other hallmark, to varying degrees, of 'true' Quaggas. Also if you compare the two, the striping patterns are completely different. I maintain they aren't achieving their aim of producing animals that resemble Quaggas, though they persist in saying they are.
 
If the quaggas were genetically distinct from all other species or subspecies of zebra, then the selective breeding is not going to recreate the quagga, simply an animal that resembles the quagga.

Unless, of course, they are manipulating the offspring at the genetic level.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
If the quaggas were genetically distinct from all other species or subspecies of zebra, then the selective breeding is not going to recreate the quagga, simply an animal that resembles the quagga.

Obviously not. My argument is simply that they still don't really resemble Quaggas....

... actually, having just looked at their updates and Facebook page, I note they are trying to concentrate more now on recreating the darker background colouration. There is one male born 2008 called 'Freddy' who is their current top example, and he does have quite a brownish tint to him rather than the 'pinky' hue which is the best they have had previously. However somewhere else they claim that he and about four other of their best animals are 'nearly identical' to Quaggas and IMO that's not true( at least not yet).

From photos and museum specimens it appears to me that the Quagga may have had slightly different proportions, being heavier and longer bodied, than existing Plains Zebra, with a shorter mane and ears. Perhaps adaptions to the more Southerly climate/environment? Plus the striping was differently patterned also. But obviously with the existing stock its not possible to recreate those extra characteristics though!
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Without cloning or some other crazy science, the best we can do is create an animal that physically resembles the quagga.
 
Elephas Maximus said:
Same with aurochs & tarpans that are mimicked by Heck cattle & horses...
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Pretty much. There's also a project to breed domestic dogs that physically resemble dire wolves. The people behind said project want dogs that not only look like them, but have the same lifespan as well. (they're going off of the lifespan for gray wolves to use as an estimate)
 
TheMightyOrca said:
Pretty much. There's also a project to breed domestic dogs that physically resemble dire wolves. The people behind said project want dogs that not only look like them, but have the same lifespan as well. (they're going off of the lifespan for gray wolves to use as an estimate)
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man, that is a seriously warped project. I found the site of the project and even they say it is impossible to "breed back" a dire wolf, that is how stupid it is. Their goal in fact is to produce a giant domestic dog.
Breeding Back - The Dire Wolf Project
 
Hix said:
If the quaggas were genetically distinct from all other species or subspecies of zebra, then the selective breeding is not going to recreate the quagga, simply an animal that resembles the quagga.

Unless, of course, they are manipulating the offspring at the genetic level.

:p

Hix
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I believe the thinking behind this project is that if quagga were a subspecies of plains zebra, they represent the southern most of a continuum. Thus it is possible that some of these traits could be found and expressed from the more southerly of the extant plains zebra subspecies.
 
Ituri said:
I believe the thinking behind this project is that if quagga were a subspecies of plains zebra, they represent the southern most of a continuum. Thus it is possible that some of these traits could be found and expressed from the more southerly of the extant plains zebra subspecies.
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That is exactly it. Stripe reduction has been fairly simple to achieve, more so than the brown base colour. Some extant Southern Zebras do have a brownish colouration but it seems they haven't so far been able to fix or extend it in the project animals.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
Of course they aren't really trying to breed back the animal. That's impossible for pretty much any species.
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It's madness, it's like trying to breed back the smilodon by attempting to make a very big house cat with longer teeth!
 
TheMightyOrca said:
Of course they aren't really trying to breed back the animal. That's impossible for pretty much any species.
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but on their site they are saying that exactly that is possible, and give examples of quagga, aurochs and tarpan to name three. My point was that even they realise they can't do for the dire wolf what they say can be done for those others, and yet they are carrying on as if what they are doing is of some scientific importance and further actually entitling their project as "breeding back" the species (while at the exact same time admitting they cannot do anything of the sort).
 
Ituri said:
It's madness, it's like trying to breed back the smilodon by attempting to make a very big house cat with longer teeth!
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pssh, that's silly. All you need is a lion and a tiger.
 
Would be nice if scientists would try to obtain useble DNA from the Quagga and use this to bring the ( sub )species alive again.
 
If possible, which I don't think it is at present, that would at least produce animals with all the correct characteristics of the genuine animal.

I would use the term'pseudo-Quagga' for all the animals in this current project, even if they do eventually achieve animals with a close resemblance to the original.
 
Cloning would be difficult, all we have is dried skins and bones. It's something that might be possible in the future, but I don't think it's going to be happening in the next few decades.
 
Pertinax said:
If possible, which I don't think it is at present, that would at least produce animals with all the correct characteristics of the genuine animal.

I would use the term'pseudo-Quagga' for all the animals in this current project, even if they do eventually achieve animals with a close resemblance to the original.
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Assuming they succeed, what is the point? Are they then going to breed up a herd of look-alikes and release them into the wild?

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
Assuming they succeed, what is the point? Are they then going to breed up a herd of look-alikes and release them into the wild?
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I believe so. In fact I think they have them already in a reserve. To me it is just a stupid waste of space which could be used to provide extra range for one of the endangered living subspecies!
 
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