As per quagga definition, the quagga, scientific name Equus quagga quagga, was a subspecies of the plains zebras like the Burchell’s zebra.
Earlier it was believe that quagga was a separate species rather then being a sub-species of the plains zebra, but studies proved otherwise.
Quagga was hunted to extinction in the 19th century by the European settler-colonists. The species went extinct almost 100 years ago.
Now, scientists in South Africa are working on the quagga project which aims to bring these South African mammals back from extinction.
The appearance of the quagga is closely related to that of a zebra and has stripes on their head and neck.
One of the features that make quaggas different from zebras is its limited pattern of primarily brown and white stripes.
Quaggas were believed to be wild and lively as compared to the other species of zebras. This sub-species of plains zebra was found in large numbers.
This sub-species of plains zebra was discovered in the Karoo of Cape Province. Other areas included the southern part of the Orange Free State in South Africa.
The main reason for extensively hunting the quagga was it competed with the domesticated animals for forage.
The quagga (Equus quagga quagga) is an animal that comes under the subspecies of zebras. They look similar to plains zebras in appearance.
The quaggas have stripes that appear on the front half of their bodies. They are brown along the rear half of the body.
People used to misunderstand quaggas for plains zebras. As the species is extinct, there are no quaggas that people can look at now.
The quaggas were big in size as they were similar to zebras. The quagga was around 8.5 ft long and 3.9-4.6 ft tall at the shoulder. They were not much bigger as compared to the other species of animals.
The quagga could run at a speed of around 40 mph. Some might even try to run faster. The quaggas used to run swiftly whenever they used to see a predator approaching them.
Quaggas are herbivores as their vegetation includes grass. They did not prey on other animals to get an adequate amount of food.
They were plant-eaters and only ate grasses. They spent most of their time gazing for food. They used to feed on grasses rather than scrubs or fruits, or any other form of food.
The quagga habitat was that of arid to the temperate grasslands and occasionally wetter pastures. The habitat of the quagga was in the grasslands of Southern Africa.
The reproduction of the quaggas used to happen by mating between males and females. When the males and females mate with each other, they produce an offspring.
The gestation period was around one year and the female gave birth to only one foal per litter.
The lifespan of the quagga is estimated to be around 40 years.
The lifespan of the quaggas was dependent on different factors such as environmental changes, surroundings, nutrition, and other factors.
Are they friendly?
Yes, quaggas were friendly in nature. One used to love the quagga for its nature and behaved very politely with other people.
They used to get along well with their other group of quaggas. Though they were wild animals, they were normally friendly with other quaggas and zebras.
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Ref: Wikipedia, prehistoric-fauna, kidadl, smithsonianmag, dnascience, quaggaproject, greenstoriesPic: Wikipedia, prehistoric-fauna, africanews, getaway, dnascience, quaggaproject, greenstories, animalia.bio