When I was young, I was incredibly inspired by Terryl Whitlatch’s Katurran Odyssey. I wanted to be a creature designer like her when I grew up. Though I am not yet a creature designer, I still incorporate animal imagery and illustration in my art.
The quagga is an African subspecies of the zebra that went extinct over 100 years ago due to settlers killing them off in the 1880′s. They share the striped characteristic with their cousin that fades off toward the middle of their body. There is not very much validation on the behavior of the quagga.
Is the quagga really back?
Well, yes and no. The Quagga Project was started in 1987 by Reinhold Rau in a town outside of Cape Town, South Africa to bring back the quagga through genetic engineering and selective breeding. Because the quagga is a subspecies of the zebra, they can use zebra DNA toward the selective breeding process. There has been a success in the process, however, the original quagga and what they are calling the “Rau quagga” are not genetically the same. Though they may have the same genetic characteristics, it is not the same animal.
Whether or not the animal is really back, there is a new species on our planet, and that is pretty cool.
