Quagga
Equus quagga quagga (Boddaert, 1785)
The quagga was a southern African zebra with stripes only on its head, neck and forequarters, hunted out in the wild by the 1870s; the last individual died in Amsterdam Zoo on 12 August 1883, with no one aware at the time that the species had ended.
Updated 25 July 2026
- Taxonomic status
- A subspecies of the plains zebra, confirmed by DNA in 1984
- Distinguishing feature
- Stripes only on the head, neck and forequarters
- Wild extinction
- By the 1870s
- Last individual
- Amsterdam, 12 August 1883
- Surviving specimens
- About 23 skins worldwide
- Historical note
- The first extinct animal to have its DNA sequenced (1984)
The quagga was a zebra that had given up on stripes halfway down its body — boldly marked at the head and neck, fading to plain brown across the hindquarters. It grazed the Karoo of South Africa in large numbers until European settlers shot it out for meat, hides, and to free grass for sheep and cattle. The wild population was gone by the 1870s. The last individual, a mare in Amsterdam, died in 1883, and nobody recorded it as an ending: the animal was assumed to be one of many, and no one had noticed that the species had already stopped existing everywhere else.
Key facts at a glance
- The quagga was not a separate species but a subspecies of the plains zebra — established in 1984 when it became the first extinct animal to have its DNA analysed.
- Its stripe pattern faded from bold at the head to absent at the rear, a variation unlike any zebra alive today.
- Settlers hunted quaggas in enormous numbers for meat and hides, and to remove grazing competition for domestic livestock.
- The wild population was gone by the 1870s. The last individual died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883.
- Nobody realised at the time. The Amsterdam mare's death was recorded as an ordinary zoo death, and the species' extinction was recognised only afterwards.
- The Quagga Project has selectively bred plains zebras since 1987 toward the quagga's reduced-stripe appearance, producing animals that resemble it — a lookalike, not a restoration.
Why did the quagga go extinct?
European settlement of the Cape brought commercial hunting on a scale the Karoo's grazing herds could not sustain. Quaggas were shot for meat to feed farm labourers, for hides that were traded and used locally, and — most decisively — to remove them from grazing land wanted for sheep and cattle. There was no legal protection, no population monitoring and no sense that a common animal could run out. Hunting continued at full intensity right through the final decline, because the concept of a species being finite was not part of how the land was managed. By the 1870s no wild quaggas remained. A handful survived in European zoos, but no coordinated breeding was attempted, in part because the animals were not recognised as the last of anything.
Can selective breeding bring the quagga back?
The Quagga Project, running in South Africa since 1987, has selectively bred plains zebras showing reduced striping, generation after generation, and has produced animals that look strikingly like historical quagga specimens. The genetic basis is sound in one narrow sense: the 1984 DNA work showed the quagga was a plains zebra subspecies, so the relevant genetic variation may still exist within the living population. But what selective breeding recovers is appearance. It does not restore the quagga's specific genome, its adaptation to the Karoo, or whatever behavioural and physiological traits went with it. The project is best understood as producing zebras that resemble quaggas — which has real value for public engagement and for restoring a grazer to Karoo habitat, but is not the same as undoing the extinction. The distinction matters because "we brought it back" is a story that makes extinction sound reversible, and it is not.
Where it lived
The Karoo and southern Free State, South Africa
The last one
The last quagga died at Artis Magistra zoo, Amsterdam, on 12 August 1883
What caused it
- 1 Mass hunting by settlers for meat, hide and to clear grazing for livestock
- 2 No recognition that the wild population had collapsed until it was over
- 3 No captive breeding attempt while animals remained in European zoos
What this extinction teaches
A species can end without anyone noticing, because common animals are not monitored. Population data on abundant species is the cheapest insurance in conservation, and it is routinely the first thing cut — which is why several once-common species are now in decline that no one has quantified.
Still here — for now
Still facing the same pressure: Zebra
The quagga was a plains zebra, and its surviving relatives show the range of outcomes. Plains zebras remain widespread; Grévy's zebra has fallen from around 15,000 in the 1970s to roughly 2,000 in Kenya and Ethiopia, squeezed by livestock competition for grazing and water. The same pressure that ended the quagga, on a population we are actually counting this time.
IUCN status: Endangered — Grévy's zebra
Did you know
Five photographs exist of a living quagga, all of one mare at London Zoo, taken in 1870. They are among the only photographs ever taken of an animal that would be extinct within thirteen years.
Quagga: frequently asked questions
When did the quagga go extinct?
Was the quagga a separate species?
Why did the quagga have stripes on only half its body?
Has the quagga been brought back?
How many quagga specimens survive?
Sources
How we check facts: our sourcing standards →