The quagga was the zebra with stripes concentrated on its front half that went extinct in 1883. It was an extinct southern African subspecies of the plains zebra, Equus quagga quagga, rather than a completely separate zebra species by modern classification. Its head, neck, and front body carried brown-and-white striping, while the rear was mostly reddish-brown and appeared more horse-like.
Quaggas lived mainly in South Africa, especially the Karoo and the southern Orange Free State. European settlers hunted them heavily because they competed with livestock for grazing and were also valued for their hides. The last wild quagga is generally considered to have died in 1878; the final captive animal, a mare at Amsterdam's Artis zoo, died on 12 August 1883.
A common mix-up is assuming every zebra has the same bold pattern across its entire body. Quagga striping varied considerably between individuals. In 1984, quagga DNA became the first genetic material from an extinct animal to be analyzed, and the Quagga Project later began selectively breeding plains zebras with quagga-like markings.