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From today's featured article

Live quagga mare in London Zoo, 1870

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. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

Grizzled tree-kangaroo

  • ... that the grizzled tree-kangaroo (pictured) hops from tree to tree?
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  • ... that an 18th-century German–Serbian dictionary uses a dialect of the Vojvodina Serbs?
  • ... that the 1969 album Yellow Submarine was one of the few Beatles releases that did not top the charts in the United Kingdom or the United States, peaking at No. 3 and No. 2 respectively?
  • ... that dogs speak with the player and plead to adventure with them in PlayStation Vita Pets?

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Today's featured picture

Slender mongoose

The slender mongoose (Galerella sanguinea) is a common species of mongoose found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Dozens of subspecies are known, and the fur color varies between subspecies. The slender mongoose tends to live alone or in pairs, and, although it is an opportunistic omnivore, it feeds primarily on insects.

This specimen was photographed at the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic.

Photo: Karel Jakubec

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