Thursday, July 16, 2009

Quaggas

One of my favorite extinct animals has long been the quagga. Native to southern Africa, it was hunted to extinction in the late nineteenth century. The last surviving quagga died in the Amsterdam zoo in 1883. The quagga was long thought to be a distinct species but DNA analysis showed that it was actually a subspecies of zebra.The Quagga Project, started in South Africa in 1987, is attempting to "breed back" the quagga from a zebra.


The Quagga Project:

http://www.quaggaproject.org/

The only known photo of a quagga was taken at Regent's Park Zoo in London in 1870.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quagga_photo.jpg

2 comments:

  1. you're so full of interesting knowledge!! i wish i was interesting and had knowledge :(

    extinct animals are awesome! this one looks really cool! i always feel sad and weird when i think about animals that are extinct or are about to be extinct. it's just such a strange thought to think that something existed, and then it didn't anymore. i used to sit and think about it for hours when i was little. it must be sad to stop existing. i know i would be sad. especially animals since they can't even talk. ok i am rambling really creepily sorry!

    <3,angelica

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  2. Thanks for your comment:). I think about extinct animals quite a bit actually. It's particularly strange when an animal has become extinct recently enough so that there's a photo of one.

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