Aquatic predators - Artensterben

Qutang-Schlucht am Jangtse (Changjiang) in der Drei-Schluchten-Region in China

The Qutang Gorge on the Yangtze (Three Gorges region): heavily burdened for decades—a study now shows the first signs of ecological recovery. (© Tan Wei Liang Byorn, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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21. February 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Hope for the Yangtze: study shows how a fishing ban is reviving the river

The Yangtze River is Asia’s longest river at over 6,300 kilometers and the third-longest river in the world. For millennia it was among the world’s most species-rich freshwater ecosystems. It supplied people, animals, and entire cultures with water, food, and habitat—and formed the ecological backbone of large parts of China.

Some of the world's most endangered marine mammals: from the small coastal dolphin to the giant whale, many species are now on the brink of extinction. (Seal: © Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons / North Pacific right whale: © Moira Brown and New England Aquarium, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons)

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30. September 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

From the Vaquita to the Right Whale: The 7 Most Endangered Marine Mammals in the World

Marine mammals include whales, dolphins, and porpoises (Cetacea), but also seals, sea lions, and walruses (Pinnipedia), as well as manatees and dugongs (Sirenia). Sometimes even sea otters and polar bears are counted among them because their lives are so closely tied to the sea, something visible in their dense fur,

Segelflossen-Glatthai (Gogolia filewoodi) - Männchen, 73 cm

First ever documented male of the sailback houndshark, caught near the Gogol estuary in 2022. The extremely long-based first dorsal fin makes the species unmistakable. Its very large, elliptical eyes are also striking. (© Sagumai et al. (2025), Journal of Fish Biology, doi:10.1111/jfb.70196, CC BY 4.0)

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29. August 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Rediscovery off Papua New Guinea: The sailback houndshark is back

One of the rarest shark species in the world has reappeared off the coast of Papua New Guinea after more than 50 years: the sailback houndshark (Gogolia filewoodi). A WWF team led by marine biologist Jack Sagumai documented a total of six specimens near the mouth of the Gogol River

Illustration of the Chinese river dolphin (baiji)—once a characteristic resident of the Yangtze. With its long, narrow snout and the sickle-shaped dorsal fin, the baiji was unmistakable. Today, the species is considered “functionally extinct”. (© Doc Taxon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

1. August 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Chinese river dolphin: Is the baiji still alive?

The last confirmed sighting of the baiji, also known as the Chinese river dolphin, is now more than 20 years ago. The IUCN therefore classifies the species as “Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)”. Scientifically, its continued existence is considered extremely unlikely, but occasional sighting reports and video recordings at least leave

If warming exceeds two degrees above pre-industrial levels, the southern and western Hudson Bay polar bear populations face local extinction. (© Arturo de Frias Marques, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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15. June 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Global warming: Polar bears could go extinct as early as the 2030s

The future of polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada, looks bleak: a new study warns that the bears could disappear regionally as early as the 2030s if global warming continues to rise and crosses critical thresholds. Researchers from several North American and international institutions warn that a global temperature increase

Illustration by the Japanese painter Hasegawa Settan showing a Japanese sea lion that washed ashore in 1823 near the city of Karatsu on the island of Kyūshū. (© Hasegawa Settan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

13. June 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Japanese Sea Lion

One of the most recently extinct marine mammals At almost the same time and for the same reasons, two marine mammals were wiped out in different places in the 20th century: the Caribbean monk seal and the Japanese sea lion. Both were hunted commercially: lamp oil was extracted from their

Caribbean monk seal in 1910 at the New York Aquarium. A total of 18 animals were kept in captivity, but none of them bred successfully. (© New York Zoological Society., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

3. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Caribbean Monk Seal

Sharks and humans were the only enemies of the Caribbean monk seal The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus discovered the Caribbean monk seal—the first mammal of the New World—in 1494 during his second voyage to the Americas, on the coast of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. He called