THE EXTINCT QUAGGA
from: Mostly Mammals, Zoological Essays
by Richard Lydekker
(1903)
[p.252] WHEN the Dutch first colonised that
part of Africa of which Cape Town now forms the capital, they found the
country absolutely swarming with a great variety of species of large
game and other animals, whose form and appearance were for the most
part unfamiliar. As they themselves came from a land which had long
since been stripped of the larger members of its fauna, it is possible
that unfamiliarity with these prototypes was one of the causes which
led to the indiscriminate and often inappropriate bestowal of the names
of the large mammals of Europe, or compounds of the same, on the
animals of the new country. What, for instance, can be more
inappropriate than the transference of the Dutch name for elk (eland)
to the largest of the Cape antelopes—unless, indeed (which is
scarcely likely), the settlers were acquainted with the fact that
etymologically the word signifies, in its Greek original, "strength"?
Neither is hartebeest (stag-ox) much better, although wildebeest (wild
ox) is by no means an unsuitable designation for the animals known to
the Hottentots by the title of gnu. Bastard hartebeest, on the other
hand, is a cumbrous and senseless name for the antelope the Bechuanas
call tsessabe, and it is much to be regretted that the Boers did not
see fit to adopt for South African animals the native titles they found
ready to hand.
[p.253] In two instances, and apparently in two
only, so far as the larger animals are concerned, they did, however,
adopt this practice. The first instance is that of the large and
handsome spiral-horned antelope now univer-sally known as kudu, a name
which is certainly not Dutch, and is believed by Sir Harry Johnston to
be of Hottentot origin, since it is unknown to the Kaffirs or other
tribes who speak dialects of the Bantu language. The second case is
that of the animal forming the subject of this article, which is now
universally known as quagga, from a corruption of its Hottentot name
quacha, pronounced by the natives as "quaha." Even in this instance,
however, the Boers appear at first to have displayed considerable
reluctance to adopt the native name, for they originally called the
animal wilde esel (wild ass) in the same way as they christened its
cousin, Burchell's zebra, wilde paard, or wild horse. Eventually,
however, better counsels prevailed, and Equus quagga
became known to the Cape Dutch by the aforesaid native name, while the
wilde paard (whose early title still survives in Paardeberg) Was
renamed bonte quacha, or striped quagga. When, however, the true quagga
became very rare and eventually exterminated, the prefix bonte
was dropped from the Dutch designation of Burchell's zebra, which was
henceforth known throughout South Africa as the quacha, or quagga, pure
and simple. Hence much confusion, and possibly also a factor in the
extermination of the species to which that title of right belonged. For
as the name in question continued to be in common use in South Africa
at the time the the quagga was on the point of extermination, it is
quite probable that this may have been the reason why the attention of
naturalists in Europe was not drawn to its impending fate while there
was yet time.
[p.254] According to the best obtainable evidence
the quagga appears to have become extinct, in Cape Colony at any rate*,
about the year 1865, at which date a specimen was actually living in
the London Zoological Society's menagerie; while another had died there
only the year before. Of the latter example, a male, presented to the
Society in 1858 by the late Sir George Grey, the carcase was
fortunately acquired by the British Museum, where both its skin and
skeleton are now preserved. The former specimen—a female purchased in
1851—survived till the summer of 1872, when its carcase was sold
(apparently without the least idea of its priceless value) to a London
taxidermist, from whom the mounted skin was acquired many years after
by Mr. Walter Rothschild, for his museum at Tring. Not impossibly, this
specimen was actually the last survivor of its kind, although, as
already said, there was not even a suspicion that it belonged to a rare
species. Most fortunately for natural history, a photograph of this
animal was taken in the summer of 1870 by Messrs. York & Son,
and
it is from that picture that most of the later figures of the animal
appear to have been taken. It is probably the only photograph of a
living specimen in existence.
According to a note published by the Secretary, in the Proceedings
for 1891, the only other example of the quagga in the London Zoological
Society's menagerie was one purchased in 1831. No record of its death
appears to have been preserved, but it may have been the same [p.255]
specimen of which the skin was exhibited in the Society's old museum in
1838, or thereabouts. These, however, were by no means the only
specimens brought alive to England, for as early as 1815 one was in the
possession of Lord Morton, while somewhat later on in the last century
Mr. Sheriff Parkins was in the habit of driving two quaggas in a
phaeton about London, and in narrating this circumstance the late
Colonel Hamilton Smith mentions that he himself had been drawn in a
gig by one of these animals, which showed "as much temper and delicacy
of mouth as any domestic horse." Another quagga was in the possession
of a former Prince of Wales, and there are records of others in
England. The skulls of the two driven by Mr. Parkins, as well as a
portrait of one of them, are preserved in the Museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons.
In addition to the specimens in the
British, Edinburgh, and Tring museums, several skins are preserved on
the Continent. With one exception, all appear to be of the same general
type as the London example photographed by Messrs. York in 1870. The
exception is one in the Imperial Museum at Vienna, of which a
description and photograph have recently been published by the
Director, Dr. L. von Lorenz, In the Proceedings
of the Zoological Society of London. Unfortunately there is no record
as to the locality where the Vienna specimen (which is a female) was
obtained, all that is known being that it was acquired by purchase in
1836.
Compared with the ordinary type of quagga, as exemplified
by York's photograph, the Vienna animal is of somewhat larger
dimensions, with a creamy buff (instead of greyish or chocolate-brown)
ground-colour on the upper parts, with the exception of the head, which
is clay-brown. A more striking [p.256] difference is to be found in the
broader dark stripes (of which there seem to be more in a given space),
and a corresponding decrease in the width of the intervening light
intervals. The stripes also seem to extend farther back on the body.
But there is also a difference between quaggas of the type of the one
photographed by York and those figured by the early writers, as
exemplified by the plate in Colonel Hamilton Smith's volume on horses
in the "Naturalists' Library." In the specimen there represented, which
not improbably came from Cape Colony, the head, neck, and forequarters
are marked by narrow black stripes on a chestnut ground. The markings
are, indeed, as Dr. von Lorenz remarks, just the reverse of those of
the Vienna specimen; the British Museum example and the one figured by
York being in some degree intermediate between these two extreme types.
With some hesitation, Dr. von Lorenz suggests that there may
have been local races of the quagga, as there are of Burchell's zebra.
Even
in the days of its abundance the quagga (which, by the way, takes its
name from its cry) had a comparatively limited distribution, ranging
from the Cape Colony up the eastern side of Africa as far as the Vaal
River, beyond which it appears to have been unknown. In this respect it
closely resembled the white-tailed gnu, which, however, is known to
have crossed that river in one district. Curiously enough, the two
species lived in close comradeship, and in the old days their vast
herds formed a striking feature in the landscape of the open plains of
the Orange River Colony. Both have now disappeared from the face of the
country, (or the white-tailed gnu, if, indeed, any are now left, only
exists in a semi-domesticated state on a few farms.
Owing to its
rank flavour, and especially its yellow fat, [p.257] the flesh of the
quagga was almost uneatable by Europeans, although it was keenly
relished by the Hottentots, who, in the early days of the Cape Colony,
were largely fed upon it by their Dutch masters. Whether this was the
cause of its comparatively early disappearance from that part of the
country, it is now impossible to say, but certain it is that when Sir
Cornwallis Harris made his trip to the interior in 1836, quaggas were
no longer to be met with in any numbers in Cape Colony, although
Colonel Hamilton Smith, writing a few years later, states that they
were still to be found within its limits. North of the Vaal River they
occurred, however, in their original multitudes, and it was not till
about the middle of the last century that the Boers took to
hide-hunting, and thus in a few years accomplished the extermination of
the species.
Allusion has already been made to the facility with
which the quagga could be broken to harness, and it seems probable that
the species could have been more easily domesticated than any of its
South African relatives. Another trait in its disposition is worth
brief mention. It was said to be the boldest and fiercest of the whole
equine tribe, attacking and driving off both the wild dog and the
spotted hyaena. On this account the Boers are stated to have frequently
kept a few tame quaggas on their farms, which were turned out at night
to graze with the horses in order to protect them from the attacks of
beasts of prey.
Throughout the whole of the plain country to the
south of the Vaal River the quagga was the sole wild representative of
the horse family, the true zebra being confined to the mountains of
Cape Colony and adjacent districts. North of the Vaal River the veldt
was, however, dotted [p.258] over with herds of Burchell's zebra, the
aforesaid bonte quagga, which, inclusive of its local races, has a very
extensive geographical distribution in East and Central Africa. It is
scarcely necessary to say that this species differed from the quagga in
having the whole or the greater part of the body striped, as well as by
the more brilliant coloration and the pattern of the striping. One very
remarkable feature in connection with this species must not be passed
over without notice. In the original and typical race (now nearly
extinct), which was obtained just north of the Vaal River, in British
Bechuanaland, and therefore immediately adjacent to the northern limits
of the quagga, the whole of the legs, as well as a considerable portion
of the hindquarters, are devoid of stripes. In this respect the typical
form of the Transvaal species comes much nearer to the last-mentioned
animal than do the races from more northern districts, in which the
hindquarters and legs are more or less completely striped; the striping
attaining its fullest development in the most northern race of all, the
so-called Grant's zebra of Somaliland and Abyssinia.
Of course,
these gradations towards the quagga type of coloration of the more
southern representatives of Burchell's zebra, as well as the
differences in the coloration of the quagga itself as compared with
zebras, have a meaning and a reason, if only they could be discovered.
And it may be remarked incidentally in this place that unless we
attempt to account rationally for such variations, there is little
justification for the modern practice of distinguishing between the
local races of variable species.
The striping of the zebras,
which there is considerable cause for regarding as the primitive type
of coloration of the horse family in general, is evidently of a
protective nature. [p.259] It was stated some years ago that zebras a
short distance off were absolutely invisible in bright moonlight, and I
have reason to believe that the same is to a great extent the case in
sunlight. For some reason or other the species inhabiting the plains
(not the mountains, be it observed) of South Africa have tended to
discard this striped coloration, the southern race of Burchell's zebra
exhibiting the first, and the quagga the second stage in this
transformation. In North Africa the transformation has been carried a
stage farther, the wild asses of the Red Sea littoral having discarded
their stripes almost completely in favour of a uniform grey or tawny
livery. In this part of the continent there is now no trace of a
transitional form, whatever may have been the case in the past, and we
thus have the sharp contrast between the uniformly coloured wild asses
of the coast of the Red Sea on the one hand, and the fully striped
zebras of Abyssinia and Southern Somaliland on the other.
Whether
there is anything in the climatic and other physical conditions of the
plains of Cape Colony which renders a partially striped species less
conspicuous than one in which the striping is fully developed, the
disappearance of the quagga makes it now impossible to determine. But
observation might advantageously be directed to the comparative
invisibility, or otherwise, of the wild asses of the Red Sea littoral
and the fully striped zebras of the interior, and whether this would be
affected in any degree by the transference of the one to the habitat of
the other. Whatever be the explanation, the fact remains that at the
opposite extremities of Africa some of the members of the equine tribe
have developed a tendency to the replacement of a striped livery by one
of a uniform and sober hue, and that in the south of the continent this
tendency [p.260] exists only in the species inhabiting the plains.
Moreover, it is only in South Africa that the transitional form is met
with, and only in the north of the continent that the striping has been
completely lost.
But, as I have already mentioned in earlier
articles, this is only one phase of a general tendency among mammals to
replace their spots or stripes by a uniformly coloured coat.
So
far as I am aware, no one has ever attempted to give a philosophical
reason for this remarkable tendency. But till an adequate explanation
of the phenomenon be forthcoming, naturalists, to repeat the words of a
well-known ornithologist, have left half their work (and I am inclined
to think the more important half) undone. Without ascertaining the
reason for phenomena of this nature; our zoological work is, indeed, as
though a man were content with describing the mechanism of a
complicated machine without an inkling as to its use.
One word
more, and I have done. To the systematic zoologist, the quagga is an
animal of special interest as affording evidence of the intimate
relationship between the zebras and the wild asses. Although, judging
from its geographical distribution, it was probably not the actual
transitional form between the two groups, yet it serves to show the
manner in which the transition was effected.
* From the fact
that a skin was purchased by the Edinburgh Museum in 1879, Mr. G.
Renshaw (Zoologist, February, 1901) has suggested that the species may
have survived in the Orange River Colony till about that date; but the
Edinburgh specimen appears to have been an old one at the date of its
purchase.
From: Mostly Mammals, Zoological Essays, by Richard Lydekker, Hutchinson & Co. (1903), pages 252-260.
Links:
Today in Science webpage for 12 August when in 1883 the quagga became extinct
