Reinhold Rau, South African taxidermist, holding a family tree from his quagga selective breeding programme. After genetic analysis of DNA from the preserved hide of a quagga (Equus quagga) in the early 1980s showed that the extinct animal was little different from the present day plains zebra (Equus burchelli), Rau set up a breeding programme to re-breed quaggas from plain zebras. Rau believes that the quagga, which only had stripes on its head, neck and forebody, and pale brown hindquarters, was a subspecies of the plains zebra. Therefore the quagga genes are still preserved in the genome of the plains zebra and can be selectively breed for.