[imagesource:facebook/thequaggaproject]

Quagga are supposed to be extinct South African animals.

The zebra-like animal once roamed our country in large herds, particularly in the Karoo and southern Free State, until they were hunted out in the second half of the 19th century.

Now, seven ‘Rau’ quagga – one stallion, five mares, and a foal – are grazing grasses and roaming reserves similar to their former habitat in Somerset West thanks to an ambitious project that began in 1987.

Vergelegen, one of the most gorgeous farms in the area, has played a pivotal role in this project to bring the quagga back from extinction. The wine estate, which is widely acknowledged for its environmental and sustainability initiatives, has provided a home for these once-extinct animals.

For this to have happened, a dedicated group of conservationists in the Quagga Project have been selectively breeding from a founder population of southern Plains Zebras in order to retrieve the genes responsible for the animals’ characteristic hide pattern. Quagga differs from other zebras as they have stripes on the head, neck and front portion of their body only, while their upper halves are more brown than white, with their bellies and legs unstriped and whitish.

Image: The Quagga Project

The project describes their breeding animals as Rau quagga, in memory of Reinhold Rau who founded the project.

The iconic animals are now settled in a 180-hectare reserve area on the farm, with all the grasses and water that they need, but it took a lot of concerted effort and a mix of all the right conditions to get them there.

With all the right permits, the coordination of the many experts involved, as well as the perfect temperature and weather conditions, the seven animals from the Quagga Project were transported from Pampoenvlei in the Atlantis/ Darling area on Tuesday 10 May 2022.

The quagga are living among five elands that were introduced to the estate in 2020, too, as part of the Gantouw Project, which researches how grazing animals can naturally boost ecosystem diversity.

At the time, four Vergelegen mares were pregnant, and due to foal from this month, October.

At some point, Vergelegen will allow visitors to see the special animals as part of the estate’s popular ecological game drives. Watch the space.

[source:vergelegen]