Africa-Press – South-Africa. Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West in the Western Cape ended 2022 on a high note with the birth of a quagga-like zebra on 14 December.
The foal joins others bred in the facility as part of a project launched in 1987 to breed an animal resembling its original species as closely as possible.
The quagga is a subspecies of the plains zebra. The breed was hunted to extinction in the second half of the 19th century. The last known one died in 1883, in the Amsterdam zoo.
“Quagga were shorter and stockier than southern plains zebras, with a pale brown hide and black markings, unlike the white hide and black markings of other plains zebras. Quagga usually have stripes on the head, neck, and front portion of their bodies only,” said environmental project manager Eben Olderwagen.
The quagga breeding programme breeds selectively from a founder population of Southern Plains zebras in order to retrieve the genes responsible for the quaggas’ characteristic hide pattern and colour.
These breeding animals are known as Rau quagga, in memory of Reinhold Rau, who founded the project.
Olderwagen said the animals in the estate would be exchanged with others in the programme to prevent in-breeding.
The sex of the newest member of the family at Vergelegen hasn’t been determined, but according to Olderwagen, it is healthy and adjusting well.
“It has grown about 15cm taller in a month and has been spotted nibbling lucerne, in addition to suckling from its mother,” he added.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the foal is not a quagga, but resembles one.
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