(KAZA). Controversial introductions outside its historical range From 2001 until 2016 the Kissama Foundation reintroduced wildlife in the Quiçama National Park of Angola. The project was dubbed Operation Noah's Ark. Amongst animals such as blue wildebeest, waterbuck, Cape giraffe, bush elephants, gemsbok, eland, nyala and ostrich were also Burchell's zebras. And from 2017 until 2019 Wildlife Vets Namibia exported wildlife to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's capital city Kinshasa to introduce animals into the Parc de la Vallée de la Nsele . Wildlife Vets Namibia in partnership with Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature also established a Burchell's zebra population on Île de Mateba, which is originally a rainforest island. Both introductions in west Angola and west DRC are controversial since the park service bodies from both countries did not opt to obtain the native Grant's zebra from for example countries such as Zambia, Tanzania or Kenya. Extinct subpopulation Like other plains zebras, Burchell's zebras must have populated the African plains in impressive numbers. Associations of thousands have been reported. The wild herds were thought to have disappeared by 1910, and the last known captive individual died in the Berlin Zoo in 1918. As European settlement spread northward from the Cape to colonial southern Rhodesia, this subspecies was thought to have been hunted to extinction. However, Groves and Bell concluded in their 2004 publication that "the extinct true Burchell's zebra" is a phantom. Careful study of the original zebra populations in Zululand and Swaziland, and of skins harvested on game farms in Zululand and Natal, has revealed that a certain small proportion shows similarity to what now is regarded as typical burchellii. The type localities of the two subspecies Equus quagga burchellii (Burchell's zebra) and Equus quagga antiquorum (Damaraland zebra) are so close to each other that they suggest that the two are in fact one, and therefore the older of the two names should take precedence over the younger. They therefore say that the correct name for the southernmost subspecies must be burchellii, not antiquorum. The subspecies Equus quagga burchellii still exists in KwaZulu-Natal and in Etosha. Equus quagga burchellii can be found in a number of zoos in the United States, including the Cincinnati Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Naples Zoo, Nashville Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo. References Sources Duncan, P. (ed.). 1992. Zebras, Asses, and Horses: An Action Plan for the Conservation of Wild Equids. IUCN/SSC Equid