The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra that lived in South Africa. Its name is derived from its call, which sounded like "kwa-ha-ha". The quagga is believed to have been around 257 cm (8 ft 5 in) long and 125–135 cm (4 ft 1 in–4 ft 5 in) tall at the shoulder. It could be distinguished from other zebras by its limited patterning of primarily brown and white stripes, mainly on the front part of the body. Little is known about its behaviour but it may have gathered in herds of 30–50 individuals. They were once found in great numbers in the Karoo of Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State in South Africa. After Dutch settlement of South Africa began, the quagga was heavily hunted, and it competed with domesticated animals for forage. Some specimens were taken to European zoos (one pictured in London Zoo, 1870), but breeding programmes were not successful. It was extinct in the wild by 1878, and the last quagga died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. The quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analysed, and the Quagga Project is trying to recreate its pelage characteristics by selectively breeding Burchell's zebras.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1323:
Sweden and the Novgorod Republic signed the Treaty of Nöteborg to temporarily end the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_N%C3%B6teborg
1624:
Cardinal Richelieu became the chief minister to King Louis XIII, and under his supervision, France's feudal political structure transformed into one with a powerful central government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu
1877:
American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)
1944:
After a week of indiscriminate killing of civilians in Wola, Warsaw, Poland, SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski ordered that any remaining Poles be sent to labour or concentration camps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_massacre
1981:
The IBM Personal Computer (pictured), the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform, was introduced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
repechage: (sports) A heat (as in rowing or fencing) in which the best competitors who have lost in a previous round compete for a place or places yet left in the next round. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repechage
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Comedy can be a cathartic way to deal with personal trauma.  Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else. --Erwin Schrödinger https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger
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