Sometimes good news, is actually good....

A new year has come, but it is the seventh year from now that excites me. Why? A common plains Zebra will become sexually mature at age seven or older, and that is good news for a project making progress since 1987. But don't let me get ahead of myself.
There are four kinds of Zebra. Three of them have white and black stripes and look very much like all the Zoo pictures every young child has seen, but one is very different, and also, very dead. The quagga was the fourth Zebra, a subspecies of plains Zebra, that inhabited the Karoo plains of South Africa. When European settlers came to the Karoo plains they brought sheep with them. Grass is sparse, and the quagga was competition for growing sheep farms. Many quagga were killed because of this reason. Many were killed for their meat, as more settlers came to the plains, many were killed for food and the leather industry over seas, and lastly, many were killed for sport on African Safaris. The animal was doomed. Many were brought to Zoos in Europe, and being easy to tame, even were employed in pulling carriages on the streets of London. By 1878, Quaggas in the wild were gone. Not truly realized, because the name quagga was used for all types of zebra. The London Zoo mare was the only specimen to be photographed, five photos were taken, three shown here. The last quagga died at the Amsterdam Zoo in 1883. And the subspecies was extinct.
Many skins of quaggas were mounted, including the last female (far left). These skins show the differences in extremities of the striping on the head, neck, and shoulders.

From skins like these, DNA proved that the quagga was a subspecies. This information led to a great ambitious project. In 1987, plains zebras with less stripes on the legs and flanks were gathered up to breed. A process known as selective back breeding was started. The project is on it's third generation, yeilding the best foals in 2005. And that's why in seven years the prospects are so amazing, because the best foals will be able to breed.
There is some disappointing news though. The project is not breeding Equus quagga quagga, but look alikes. THe original gene pool has to be resurected to be the true species. This can be done, but it would take money, and a neat plan. But with the look alikes already spawned from the original ancestor, a good start for filling the genetic gaps has been established. The future is looking good though, for the quagga to be the first resurected species.