Marine mammals - Artensterben

IUCN-Update: Antarktis-Bewohner leiden unter Klimawandel: Kaiserpinguin, Antarktischer Seebär, Südlicher See-Elefant

Emperor penguin, Antarctic fur seal and southern elephant seal: these three Antarctic species were reassessed by the IUCN, with the first two now classified as Endangered (EN) and the third as Vulnerable (VU)—a clear signal of the growing impacts of climate change. (© Wikimedia Commons – Pinguin: Ian Duffy UK, CC BY 2.0 / Seebär: Winky from Oxford, CC BY 2.0 / See-Elefant: Colorado State University Libraries, CC BY-SA 4.0)

11. April 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

IUCN warns: Climate change threatens emperor penguins, fur seals and elephant seals in the Southern Ocean

Antarctica and the adjacent subantarctic regions are no longer stable ecosystems. Climate change is causing sea ice to shrink, ocean temperatures to rise and food webs to falter—with direct consequences for the wildlife of the Southern Ocean. New IUCN assessments make it clear that even species adapted to extreme conditions,

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.

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)

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,

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

Southern elephant seals are an example of how species were pushed to the brink of extermination by climate change and human impacts. Image: Jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

26. March 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

Climate change & extinction: what elephant seals and current climate research teach us about Earth’s future

Climate change is among the greatest threats of our time—with far-reaching consequences for our health, economic stability, and biological diversity. Two current scientific studies show what disturbing effects unchecked global warming could have on ecosystems and life on Earth—and why we urgently need to act. Elephant seals as witnesses of

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)

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

The vaquita, or Gulf of California porpoise, is among the smallest whales in the world, at around one and a half meters long and weighing about 50 kilograms. (© Paula Olson, NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

13. June 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Vaquita: New video footage of the rarest marine mammal in the world

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) has been one of the most endangered mammals in the world since the extinction of the Chinese river dolphin (Baiji) in 2002. Recently, Sea Shepherd released the latest results of their most recent vaquita survey during a press conference. The environmental organization presented footage showing a

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

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)

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)

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