Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 12, 2014

The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra that lived in South Africa. Its name is derived from its call, which sounded like "kwa-ha-ha". The quagga is believed to have been around 257 cm (8 ft 5 in) long and 125–135 cm (4 ft 1 in – 4 ft 5 in) tall at the shoulder. It could be distinguished from other zebras by its limited patterning of primarily brown and white stripes, mainly on the front part of the body. Little is known about its behaviour but it may have gathered in herds of 30–50 individuals. They were once found in great numbers in the Karoo of Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State in South Africa. After Dutch settlement of South Africa began, the quagga was heavily hunted, and it competed with domesticated animals for forage. Some specimens were taken to European zoos (one pictured in London Zoo, 1870), but breeding programmes were not successful. It was extinct in the wild by 1878, and the last quagga died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. The quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analysed, and the Quagga Project is trying to recreate its pelage characteristics by selectively breeding Burchell's zebras. (Full article...)

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