The Quagga - A lost species of Zebra

150 years ago a fourth species of zebra, the quagga (Equus quagga), was extremely common in South Africa. It most closely resembled the common zebra but had distinct brown and off-white stripes on its head and neck only. Along its flanks the stripes gradually faded out to a plain brown. The legs and belly were white.

The early white settlers, the Boer farmers, shot large numbers of quaggas as food for their servants. They used to take a train of wagons out onto the plains and blast away at anything that moved! Then many of the carcases would be loaded onto the wagons and the rest of the dead and dying animals were left to rot. This process was repeated all over the quagga's range and by 1820 (around 70 years after the first settlers arrived) their numbers were severely depleted. Finally, the last wild ones were killed in 1861. The zoos were surprised to learn that there were no more replacements for their dead quaggas, and when the last captive ones died, the quagga was completely extinct.