Hunting the Cape Quagga (Equus quagga quagga)

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Those of you that recently hunted on the Wild goose Lodge are the lucky ones because you have witnessed the largest number of privately owned population of the cape Quagga!

In short it was believed they went extinct in the cape of South Africa some time in the late 1800's but with allot of work from several people and now private land owners in south Africa they are back and we will have the cape quagga available to hunt for the first time in a century!

The Wild Goose hunting area where we are based is owned by Kridyn Safaris, we have been managing the area for 2 years and have just finished our second very successful hunting season here. as I mentioned above Kridyn is the owner of the largest privately owned herd of Quagga, they have been involved with the Quagga project for many years and have provided both land and financial aid to the project to bring back an animal that was thought to be lost forever.

I have stated many times that 'Hunters pay for conservation' and with the help of land owners dedicated to conservation and hunting we will now be able to offer hunts for what was once thought to be an extinct sub species of the Zebra. Watch this space as we will be posting soon for the first available hunts for 2025/26 seasons, the quota will be small but will be available to hunters on AH

Here below are a few links with some more information on the quagga,

Quagga project
https://www.quaggaproject.org/


a short history of the Quagga

here below is a picture I took of a few days ago of quagga roaming the plain at Wild Goose lodge! I will post a few more pictures and video soon!

 

[Sourdough]

Wow, that’s incredible. I thought for sure that they were gone forever. Awesome effort and I’m sure hard work and lots of money went in to bringing them back.

 

[sgt_zim]

Interesting, never heard of that subspecies. It looks like a confusing cross between Burchell's and Hartmann's.

 

[WAB]

I may be absolutely wrong, but weren’t they truly extinct and a close proxy has been created with a breeding program?

 

[Red Leg]

I may be absolutely wrong, but weren’t they truly extinct and a close proxy has been created with a breeding program?

Exactly. It has been extinct since the late 19th century. This is apparently the only actual Quagga ever photographed which was a mare in a London zoo and died in 1870.

As the video shows, it would be possible to selectively breed current Burchell's zebras that displayed coloration akin to the other subspecies. Also, if the video is correct, and the quagga was never a separate subspecies then one is replicating or recreating a new/old coloration - rather like the multi-hued sprinbock. However, this mare is rather different than those in the video. I am not sure a mammalogist would concur these are actual quagga.

That said, it would be interesting to see plains zebras in the natural range of the Quagga that bred similarly to the coloration of the original animal.

From Wikipedia - This type of selective breeding is called breeding back. The practice is controversial, since the resulting zebras will resemble the quaggas only in external appearance, but will be genetically different.

A color rendition of the London mare.

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Here is a stallion from one of the family groups on the Wild Goose area ,

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Exactly. It has been extinct since the late 19th century. This is apparently the only actual Quagga ever photographed which was a mare in a London zoo and died in 1870.

View attachment 644583
As the video shows, it would be possible to selectively breed current Burchell's zebras that displayed coloration akin to the other subspecies. Also, if the video is correct, and the quagga was never a separate subspecies then one is replicating or recreating a new/old coloration - rather like the multi-hued sprinbock. However, this mare is rather different than those in the video. I am not sure a mammalogist would concur these are actual quagga.

That said, it would be interesting to see plains zebras in the natural range of the Quagga that bred similarly to the coloration of the original animal.

From Wikipedia - This type of selective breeding is called breeding back. The practice is controversial, since the resulting zebras will resemble the quaggas only in external appearance, but will be genetically different.

A color rendition of the London mare.
View attachment 644586

They say that they believe the brown colour has more to do with the diet and age than genetics but its an ongoing project , all the animals in the Kridyn herd is directly from the official quagga Project and certified by them , i will be posting some pictures as i can get them the animals roam on a big area and there are some awesome specimens here!

 

[mark-hunter]

Just for the information, what would be expected trophy fee for quagga, if it is not too early to ask?

 

[Philip Glass]

This is a great project that has been ongoing for years. It is good to see the success they are having.

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Just for the information, what would be expected trophy fee for quagga, if it is not too early to ask?

Honestly its to early to say , it will be a mix of number available and what Kridyn’s owner will decide, but my suggestion is to either put one on a hunt auction here on AH or with one of the safari clubs, i think it could be good marketing for safari organisations ,marketing it as hunters helping and paying the way for the return of an almost lost subspecies. The quagga need to have a monetary value for an end user(hunting) to ensure more land owners will invest land and effort into them so we can have large healthy population

 

[mark-hunter]

The quagga need to have a monetary value for an end user(hunting) to ensure more land owners will invest land and effort into them so we can have large healthy population

I fully agree!
This in the past has been proven as successful model in conservation!