China - 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

Wolterstorff-Molch (Cynops woltertorffi) - Natural History Museum (London)

The Yunnan lake newt was named by George Albert Boulenger (1905) in honor of the German geologist and zoologist Willy Wolterstorff, who worked extensively on the systematics of salamanders and newts. (© "1946.9.6.32-pic1" - Cynops wolterstorffi (Boulenger, 1905) Collected in China by The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, CC BY 4.0, via GBIF)

3. April 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Yunnan lake newt—a poorly documented extinction

A newt with a fish-like appearance At the beginning of the 20th century, John Graham collected several animal species previously unknown to science in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. He sent the finds to London, where they were examined by George Albert Boulenger at the Natural History Museum. Boulenger,

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)

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.

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)

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

The rare Berezowski’s reed snake has not been sighted for at least 26 years. (© Liang Y-T, Huang Z-D, Ding L, Vogel G, Ananjeva NB, Orlov NL, Shi S-C, Wu Z-J, Chen Z-N (2024) Revalidated after having been described more than a century ago: Calamaria berezowskii Günther, 1896 (Squamata, Colubridae) from Sichuan, Southwestern China. Zoosystematics and Evolution 100(3): 897-911. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.125798)

10. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

South China: Mystery of Berezowski’s Reed Snake Solved

The snake species Berezowski’s reed snake (Calamaria berezowskii), described as a new species in 1896, puzzled scientists for a long time, as it was unclear whether it even existed. Due to a lack of sightings, it was assumed that the missing Berezowski’s reed snake was not a distinct taxon but

The dugong, also known as the sea cow or sea pig, reaches a body length of three to four meters and a weight of 230 to 900 kilograms. (© Vardhanjp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

25. August 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Dugong Extinct in China

After the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN had already declared the dugong, a species of sea cow, extinct in Mauritius and Taiwan, China is now following. A research study published yesterday in The Royal Society Publishing concludes that the dugong (Dugong dugon) is functionally extinct in China. For

Drawing of a Chinese paddlefish from 1868. The frontal portion made up around one-third of the fish's total length. Chinese paddlefish reached lengths of more than three meters and weights of up to 300 kilograms. (© Muséum d'histoire Naturelle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

8. August 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Chinese Paddlefish

An ancient swimming fossil in the Yangtze River The Chinese paddlefish and its relatives were already swimming through Earth’s waters more than 100 million years ago. This freshwater predator, said to have reached lengths of seven meters and weights of several thousand pounds, survived the mass extinction 66 million years