The South African Museum's Quagga Project. This project is an attempt by a group of dedicated people in South Africa to bring back an animal from extinction and reintroduce it into reserves in its former habitat. DNA analysis has shown that the Quagga was not a separate species of zebra but in fact a subspecies of the plains zebra (Burchell's Zebra). The Quagga, formerly inhabited the Karoo and southern Free State of South Africa. Like other grazing mammals, quaggas had been ruthlessly hunted. They were seen by the settlers as competitors for the grazing of their livestock, mainly sheep and goats. By breeding with selected southern plains zebras an attempt is being made to retrieve at least the genes responsible for the Quaggas colouration. The project, if successful, will rectify a tragic mistake made over a hundred years ago through greed and short sightedness. Once again herds of 'Quaggas' will roam the plains of the Karoo. When the quagga mare at Amsterdam Zoo died on 12 August 1883, it was not realised that she was the very last of her kind. Because of the confusion caused by the indiscriminate use of the term "Quagga" for any zebra, the true quagga was hunted to extinction without this being realised until many years later. Information about the Quagga, needed for school projects, will be found in this website. It is not possible to answer individual school project inquiries.