Bringing back the Quagga

Sorry, I don't see the point. We cannot recreate the Quagga. The Quagga is dead and gone. What is being created is an animal that looks like a Quagga. But it is not a Quagga. An animal is made up of so much more than it's simple visual appearance.

How are they intending to replicate the Quaggas's behaviour? How about the mtDNA? The gut bacteria?

All of that is gone. Forever.

I'm with NoAstronomer.

I've read a fair number of articles about the quagga effort over the last few years, and I cannot convince myself that it's anything other than a "feel good" hobby project. I've not noticed any comments about anything that's being learned; selective breeding, after all, has been around for a long time.

What's the point?

How are they intending to replicate the Quaggas's behaviour? How about the mtDNA? The gut bacteria?

Good points. And an animal is also part of an ecosystem. I suppose that's the reason I also cannot get very excited about the "mammoth cloning" activities being discussed.

And I suppose I feel that there's more than enough worthwhile activity working as intelligently as we know how with what we have.

let's not get too essentialist here. no, an animal with the exact genetic makeup of the quagga will never again roam the earth. but genetic studies seem to show that quaggas were a race of Plains Zebra, Equus quagga, rather than a distinct species in their own right, and that many living members of that species are very similar in habit, habitat, and morphology to the extinct race. if we have the technology, should we not re-build them? (okay, so that was a little tongue-in-cheek there, heh.)

so why not? Heck cattle, while definitely not "true" Bos taurus primigenius, are still low-intensity grazers with little need for human care. and every single one of the wolves of Isle Royale, as far as we can tell, have the mtDNA of coyotes.... but they function like wolves.

and where ecosystems are concerned, isn't that what really matters?

One possible motivation is scientific curiosity. Another is guilt.

As brooks pointed out, quagga is very closely related to the Plains Zebra, thus, unlike Mammoths or Neanderthals, a very close relative is still exctant and plentiful.

Second, we exterminated the quagga very recently - a century or so. Thus, the quagga's natural environment is still there, unaltered by the ages.

Third, similar experiments worked before. The Tarpan (a subspecies of a wild horse) went extinct. But in Poland, they knew that many of the domestic Hucul ponies had Tarpan blood (due to huma cross-breeding as well runaway horses) and often displayed quite distinct Tarpan characteristics. Tarpan was also recently exterminated by humans so there is a guilt component there as well. By cross-breeding Huculs with prominent pieces of Tarpan-like phenotypes, as well as some infusion of the closely related Equus przewalski przewalski (the Asian subspecies - Tarpan was the European subspecies), they managed, over decades, to pretty much reconstruct Tarpan. Would the DNA and maternal RNA be exact sequences? Probably not, but close enough. Phenotypically (morphology, behavior, etc,) they are for all purposes real Tarpans.

and where ecosystems are concerned, isn't that what really matters?

Sure. So the "quagga" is back. What do you do with it? Is it just to be a zoo curiosity? Do you try to introduce it into the wild ... and if, so, where? And if it hybridized with the local zebra populations, does anyone care?

Same questions for cloned mammoths.

It's interesting intellectually, I suppose, but what's the point?

I'm struck by the unlikely but mildly interesting hypothetical situation of the African elephant population dropping below critical mass at about the same time as a viable breeding population of mammoths is established ...

I just recalled an old (70's?) BC cartoon from well before Hart was born for a second time.

BC rushes up to the others at the campfire while holding a cage. "Don't worry about the snub-billed owl. I've captured the last two, so we can make sure that they don't become extinct."

Close-up on the cage. The owls speak - "Good night, Dave." "Good night, Chet."

Tarpan was the European subspecies), they managed, over decades, to pretty much reconstruct Tarpan

Interesting ... I'd not heard of the tarpan before. The Wikipedia article suggests ...

There have been three attempts have been made to re-create the Tarpan. In the early 1930s, Berlin Zoo Director Lutz Heck and Heinz Heck of the Munich Zoo began a program that by the 1960s produced the Heck horse. In 1936, Polish university professor Tadeusz Vetulani began a program using Konik horses, and in the mid-1960s Harry Hegard started a program in the United States using feral mustangs and local working ranch horses that has resulted in the Hegardt or Stroebel's Horse. None of the breeding programs were completely successful, although all three resulted in horses with many similarities to the Tarpan.

But I suggest that my questions remain - so what? And are these anything more than hobby species?

Maybe we can selective breed ourselves back to the Neanderthal?? Or maybe we already have... Just Kidding!!!! Unless the goal is to recover a species which has just become extinct in our lifetime, it's not even an ethical practice- in my opinion.

I think of quagga and tarpan examples as if they are standard conservation projects - with a break. Like breeding endangered species in captivity, but not having that last living pair to work with, so we reconstruct them first. Then we release them into their existing natural habitat.

Mammoths and Neanderthals, on the other hand, have had too long a break - it is not a recovery, it is resurrection. And their natural habitat is gone, so we cannot release them into the wild once we have enough individuals.

If it looks like a Quagga, it`s a Quagga, let The Mountain Zebra sub species revive the breed in S.A. and over a period of time the same distinguishing characteristics will evolve in the same type of environment.

I dont really care, actually, i just need help on my homework!!
by the way, how do they get re created, do they just make zebras and horse have sex?