The Quagga Project.

By Miss Cellania in Animals & Pets on Aug 13, 2007 at 10:20 am

quagga

The Quagga looks like a cross between a zebra and some other animal, like the series of zebra posts on Neatorama just recently, but it was a type of zebra. The Quagga became extinct in the late 19th century. DNA analysis of the preserved remains of several Quaggas revealed that it was not a separate species, but a zebra subspecies. The Quagga Project hopes to selectively breed zebras with DNA similar to the Quagga in order to bring the Quagga back and reintroduce it to protected preserves in its former habitat in South Africa. Link -via the Presurfer


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  1. redphone
    Aug 13th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

    THAT, is a big deal. I mean whoohoo, a zebra subspecies, but that’s no the point. It’s humans attempting to bring back something that is extinct. That’s the hugeness of this news.

  2. Miss Cellania
    Aug 14th, 2007 at 12:00 am

    Thats what fascinated me about this. We already breed animals for certain traits, and we can now map genes. Breeding existing animals to match a gene map of a bygone animal is a whole new area.

  3. Alex
    Aug 14th, 2007 at 4:48 am

    That’s certainly a neat project, but besides the “wow, we can do it” factor, what’s the value?

    So the quagga is extinct – we humans live on and have improved living conditions since the late 19th century. Why do we need a zebra subspecies?

    Just thinking outloud.

    Now, if it was a giant woolly mammoth, THAT’ll be different! :)

  4. Denita TwoDragons
    Aug 14th, 2007 at 11:42 am

    Hey Alex–I’m currently sticking my tongue out at you, out loud. ;-)

    I like the fact that humans are genuinely trying to bring back something that humans made extinct through their own ignorance. It gives me hope that we haven’t thoroughly mired ourselves in exactly that thought of “Oh well, that’s just the way it goes, it’s dead and gone but WE must go on, etc.”

    And frankly, it’s better research than engineering a subcutaneous bra… ;-)

    –TwoDragons


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