 The only quagga to have been photographed alive was a mare at the Zoological Society of London 's Zoo . Five photographs of this specimen are known , taken between 1863 and 1870 . On the basis of photographs and written descriptions , many observers suggest that the stripes on the quagga were light on a dark background , unlike other zebras . Reinhold Rau , pioneer of the Quagga Project , claimed that this is an optical illusion : that the base colour is a creamy white and that the stripes are thick and dark . <unk> evidence supports zebras being dark coloured with white as an addition . 
