Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Quagga

Quagga

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/August 12, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 23:31, 22 July 2014 (UTC)



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 long and 125 – 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 the former Cape Province and the southern part of the former 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.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Only one I can think of is broad-billed parrot (also recently extinct), which has been selected for July (not relevant to the date). Though I wrote that article, I did not nominate it here. If it is a problem, I would prefer quagga to run, since the date chosen is actually relevant. I wanted to nominate this article for TFA on August 12 last year, but it was promoted to FA three days after the date.
 * Main editors: FunkMonk, LittleJerry
 * Promoted: 2013
 * Reasons for nomination: Date of extinction, so quite relevant.
 * Support as nominator. FunkMonk (talk) 15:53, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Support. LittleJerry (talk) 17:06, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Blurb tweaked and expanded to 1,200 characters (right on the limit, it was too short before). I don't have a problem with running two (very different) extinct animals in consecutive months. BencherliteTalk 17:59, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Support, perfect for the date. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:53, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Support - Interesting article and a quite relevant date. –Prototime (talk · contribs) 01:48, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Support, good date and high quality. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 19:32, 6 July 2014 (UTC)