Australia - Artensterben

Some of the rarest animal species in the world: from the nearly extinct vaquita to the red wolf, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle, the Okinawa spiny rat, and the northern white rhino. These species now survive only in tiny populations.

8. May 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Fewer than 50 individuals: These animal species have almost disappeared

There are animal species worldwide whose populations have now shrunk to just a few dozen or even only single individuals. Many of them stand on the brink of extinction and survive only in small refuges or through elaborate conservation programs. The main cause of their decline is humans, for example

Moas: An extinct avian world of New Zealand. (© Auckland Museum Collections from Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

26. January 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Moas: New Zealand’s extinct giant birds

The moa is among those extinct animals that continue to fascinate and disturb in equal measure. Not only because of its enormous size, but above all because its disappearance is comparatively recent. Just a few centuries ago, these flightless birds roamed the forests, moors, and grasslands of New Zealand. Today,

Rediscoveries in 2025: Animal species believed to be lost and extinct

In 2025, several animal species returned to the focus of scientific attention after having long been considered lost or even thought to be extinct. (© Shrews: Tatiana Petrova, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons / Snake: Photo courtesy of Professor Blair Hedges)

3. January 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Rediscoveries in 2025: These animal species were considered lost or extinct

Species do not simply disappear just because no one has seen them for a long time. And they are just as little “saved” just because they suddenly reappear. Rediscoveries mark a narrow line between hope and uncertainty: they show that life can endure – often, however, only barely. In 2025,

A red fox carrying a squirrel in its mouth, a symbol of the hunting success of this highly adaptable predator, which in Australia became a threat to numerous endemic animal species. (© NPS Photo/Kent Miller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

19. October 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

From 60 to 1.7 Million: How the Red Fox Conquered Australia in Just 60 Years

When European settlers of British origin brought the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) to Australia from around 1870 onward, they were thinking of tradition, not ecological consequences. Hunting foxes with packs of hounds, then a deeply rooted social ritual in England and now banned, was meant to continue in the new

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)

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

The Christmas Island pipistrelle was Australia's smallest bat and occurred exclusively on the remote Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It had dark brown fur, hunted insects in flight, and showed no striking sexual dimorphism — males and females looked alike. (© Lindy Lumsden, verwendet mit freundlicher Genehmigung)

20. August 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Christmas Island pipistrelle – an avoidable extinction

In the middle of the Indian Ocean, around 350 kilometers south of Java, lies remote Christmas Island—an Australian external territory just 135 square kilometers in size. Despite its small size, it once harbored a remarkable diversity of endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. One of them was the Christmas

Östliches Irmawallaby oder Greys Wallaby

Its external features gave the toolache wallaby a distinctly elegant appearance, which was described appreciatively even by settlers who otherwise had little interest in Australian animals. (© John Gould, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

13. July 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Toolache Wallaby: The most beautiful, elegant and agile of all wallabies

British naturalist Frederic Wood Jones, who spent many years in Australia, called Grey’s wallaby, also known as the toolache wallaby, “probably the most beautiful and elegant of all wallabies” in 1924. The high-contrast facial markings, the banded fur on the back and the overall fine gray tone of the coat

Peter Jackson will Südinsel-Riesenmoa zurückbringen

This is what a South Island giant moa may have looked like—the extinct bird species is now set to be "brought back" using modern genetic engineering. The controversial project is supported by director Peter Jackson and the US company Colossal Biosciences.

9. July 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

De-extinction: Peter Jackson wants to bring back the extinct giant moa—scientists remain skeptical

New Zealand director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, Braindead) is supporting an ambitious project to revive the South Island giant moa. Together with the US biotech firm Colossal Biosciences, the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, and the Canterbury Museum, the flightless bird that went extinct in the 14th or

Nacktbrustkänguru (Caloprymnus campestris)

Desert rat-kangaroo at the Museum of Central Australia: at 25 to 28 centimeters in body length (excluding the tail), the species was slightly larger than a house rat. (© Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

25. February 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

The Desert Rat-kangaroo—Found, Lost, Found and Lost Again…

For the Wangkangurru, an Aboriginal people, the desert rat-kangaroo (Ngudlukanta) had been known for thousands of years. But Western science only became aware of the marsupial from the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae) in the 1840s, when the then governor of South Australia, George E. Grey, sent three specimens to the naturalist

Truffles (Gallacea scleroderma) and moas

Gallacea scleroderma: a truffle-like fungus endemic to New Zealand whose spores were once dispersed by moas and which plays a central role in the forest ecosystem. (© Zac Sanson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

17. January 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

What links extinct moas, colorful truffles, and climate change?

New Zealand, known for its unique wildlife and flora, holds many secrets from the past. One of them was revealed by a recent study in Biology Letters: the extinct upland moas (Megalapteryx didinus) were not only majestic birds, but also played a central role in dispersing colorful, truffle-like fungi such