quagga

Everyday

The quagga was a kind of zebra from South Africa with stripes only on the front half of its body and a plain brown back; it became extinct more than a hundred years ago because of hunting. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons about extinction, the quagga is an example of an animal wiped out by people; the last one died in a zoo in Amsterdam. Scientists studied its DNA and found it was a type of plains zebra, and a project in South Africa is breeding zebras that look like quaggas again.

Examples

• The quagga was half zebra-striped and half brown. tree →
• The last quagga died in a zoo long ago. tree →
• Hunters killed the quaggas for meat and skins. tree →
• The quagga is now extinct. tree →
• Scientists found the quagga was a kind of zebra. tree →
• Only one quagga was ever photographed alive. tree →

Note

Countable: quaggas. Pronounced «KWAG-uh». It was real, not a mythical creature. «Extinct» means no living ones are left anywhere.