The Quagga Project was officially launched in South Africa in 1987,
with Reinhold Rau at its helm. It has the aim of recreating quagga by
selective breeding from plains zebra; ultimately returning quagga to the
wild. What makes this project so innovative and revolutionary is that
this is a simple, selective breeding programme over generations. There
is no genetic manipulation, and no cloning. It’s the only project of its
kind in the world.
“The important thing is that we’re not creating a new species,” says
Professor Eric Harley, an expert in conservation genetics at the University
of Cape Town, and an integral member of the Quagga Project. “You can’t
bring an animal back from extinction. It’s also important to point out that
the whole project has nothing to do with genetic engineering or genetic
manipulation. It’s purely a selective breeding programme.”
Genetic manipulation, such as with cloning, can only be undertaken with
live cells, so this was never an option for the quagga. The only reason that
quagga can be brought back to life, so to speak, is because it’s a subspecies
with similar genetic coding.

Now you can see a video of the most recent results here.