Vergelegen wine estate in Somerset West recently celebrated the birth of a young ‘Rau’ quagga – a rare zebra sub-species.
The arrival of the healthy youngster is a milestone in an ambitious project, initiated by a group of conservationists in 1987, to breed an animal resembling as closely as possible the quagga.
Quagga were shorter and stockier than Southern Plains zebras, with a pale brown hide and black markings, unlike the white hide and black markings of other Plains zebras. Quagga usually have stripes on the head, neck and front portion of their bodies only.
This animal was hunted to extinction in the second half of the 19th century and the last known mare died in Amsterdam Zoo in 1883. The quagga formerly inhabited the Karoo and southern Free State of South Africa.
DNA analysis has revealed that the quagga is not a separate zebra species of its own, but is in fact one of several subspecies or local forms of the Southern Plains zebra (Equus quagga).
Selective breeding from the founder population of Plains zebra has led to a population visually closer to the original quagga population than any other surviving Plains zebra.
The Vergelegen foal was born on December 14 last year after a 12-month gestation period. It was left undisturbed to bond with the other seven quagga and its sex has not yet been determined.
“This youngster appears very relaxed and has been accepted as one of the herd,” said Eben Olderwagen, Environmental Project Manager at the 323-year-old estate.
“It has grown about 15cm taller in a month and has been spotted nibbling lucerne, in addition to suckling from its mother.”
The quagga at Vergelegen, introduced from Pampoenvlei in the Atlantis/Darling area in May last year, are located in a 180 hectare reserve with lush natural grazing, a mix of renosterbos, Boland granite fynbos and various grasses.
Olderwagen says management hopes that this founder herd at Vergelegen will continue to breed and, after about two years, selected quagga will be exchanged with others in the programme. This will prevent in-breeding and reinforce the quest to breed quagga as near as possible to the original species.
The quagga breeding programme breeds selectively from a founder population of Southern Plains zebras in order to retrieve the genes responsible for the quaggas’ characteristic hide pattern and colour. These breeding animals are known as Rau quagga, in memory of Reinhold Rau, who founded the project.
Visitors have the opportunity to spot the quagga by booking a place on the estate’s popular guided game drives. These take visitors through the Vergelegen nature reserve, with possible sightings of the estate’s Nguni cattle, bontebok, quagga and five eland.
There are currently about 200 Rau quagga in South Africa.
