| Reinhold Rau | |
| Birth Date: | 7 February 1932 |
| Birth Place: | Friedrichsdorf, Germany |
| Death Place: | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Occupation: | Taxidermist, natural historian |
| Known For: | Efforts to re-breed the extinct quagga |
Reinhold Eugen Rau (7 February 1932 – 11 February 2006) was a German natural historian who initiated the Quagga Project in South Africa, which aims to re-breed the extinct quagga, a sub-species of zebra.
Rau was born in Friedrichsdorf, Germany, and trained as a taxidermist at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt,[1] joining the South African Museum in Cape Town in 1959. Rau was initially part of a team of seven taxidermists working at the museum.[2] Although principally known for his work on quaggas, Rau also rediscovered a species of tortoise which had been thought extinct. Rau continued to work at the South African Museum following his retirement;[2] he died on February 11, 2006,[3] at his home in Cape Town.[4]
Rau's interest in quaggas began in 1969, when he re-mounted a quagga foal at the South African Museum. In 1971, Rau visited museums across Europe,[5] and ultimately examined 22 of the world's 23 quagga specimens.[6] Dried tissue samples from the skin of the South African Museum's quagga foal, together with additional tissue samples from the two Mainz quaggas that he re-mounted in 1980/81, formed the basis of the DNA analyses that led to the discovery that the Quagga was a subspecies of the Plains Zebra, not a distinct species. This led to Rau founding the Quagga Project, an attempt to re-breed the extinct Quagga.
Rau's quest to rebreed the Quagga is said to have provided inspiration for Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park.[7]
In 2000, the Cape Tercentenary Foundation awarded Rau the Molteno Medal for lifetime services to nature conservation in the Cape.[8]
In 2013, Khumba, an animated movie about a quagga, was dedicated to Rau's memory.[9]