12 August 1883 - Last Known Quagga Dies in Amsterdam's Artis Magistra Zoo

It wasn't known at the time, simply because the term Quagga was applied to any zebra found in South Africa, but when the last Quagga mare died in Amsterdam all the rest had been hunted to extinction - although controversy existed as to whether the Quagga was just a variant of the plains zebra (known in Southern Africa as the Burchell's zebra). DNA testing on skins from mounted specimens has since shown that the Quagga was in fact a sub-species (it was the first extinct animal to have its mitochondrial DNA determined). The Quagga was striped only on the head and neck, and had a brownish coat rather than white.

Since the early 1990s there has been a special breeding project in South Africa (not surprisingly known as the Quagga Breeding Project) to recreate the Quagga. This is only possible because it was a sub-species of the plains zebra and that Quagga genes are likely to still exist in a 'diluted' form amongst them - zebra found in the region which previously supported Quagga occasionally show reduced striping and brownish coloration.. A similar selective breeding program attempted to recreate the Mongolian wild horse, Przewalski horse, from domesticated horses known to be descended from Przebalski's.

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