Natural Environment Blog

Caspian Seal numbers have plummeted 90% over the last 100 years. The species is now officially classified as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The Caspian Seal was recently reclassified from “Vulnerable” to “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The reclassification occurred after scientists found that the Caspian Seal population had dropped 90 percent in the past 100 years. 

The scientists, from the University of Leeds, worked together with international partners to discover that the seal’s population has plummeted from 1 million at the start of the 20th century, to approximately 100,000 today.  

The Main Causes

The main causes of the Caspian Seal population decline is:

• Commercial hunting
• Habitat degradation
• Disease
• Pollution
• Drowning in fishing nets

Low Breeding Cycle 

Seals are known for their long breeding cycle, which will not help with reviving the population of the species.

“Each female has just one pup a year, so with numbers at such a low levels, every fertile female that dies is a nail in the coffin of the species,” said Dr Simon Goodman of Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Sciences.

He added, “We’re hoping that the seal’s change in Red List status will help raise awareness about their plight, and the many important conservation issues facing the whole Caspian ecosystem.”

Furthermore, results of 2005 and 2006 surveys published recently in the scientific journal Ambio, reveal that there are only 17,000 breeding females. Given the low survival rate of pups, this is barely enough to keep the Caspian Seal population alive.  

Also, more recent surveys in 2007 and 2008 show that since 2005, the number of pups being born has dropped 60 percent to between 6,000 or 7,000. And as if that isn’t bad enough, the surveys found that there were 30 percent less adults on the breeding ground than in 2005.

Commercial Hunters Killing Pups

Caspian Seal Pup. Commercial hunters continue to slaughter pups like this evey year. Photo: Caspian Seal Conservation Network.

The team say that commercial hunters from Dagestan in the Russian Federation are responsible for the killing of 8,000 Caspian Seal pups in recent years.

“Without a suite of conservation measures there is a very high risk the species will become extinct, and possibly within our lifetime,” says Dr Goodman.

The team is developing a conservation action plan, which will prioritise a ban on hunting the seal and establish protected areas with the countries bordering the Caspian Sea.

A giant bat, previously listed as critcally endangered on the IUCN Red List, has made a comeback from almost certain extinction in the tropical island of Zanzibar Tanzania.

The Pemba flying fox (Pteropus voeltzkowi) was first listed on the Red List as Endangered in 1990. Then in 1996, it was upgraded to Critically Endangered.

Around that time Fauna & Flora International (FFI), in partnership with Department of Commercial Crops, Fruits and Forestry (DCCFF), began a program to save the Pemba flying fox from extinction. Their program included an extensive education campaign, establishment of environmental clubs to protect roosts close to villages, meetings with hunters and key decision makers, and ongoing monitoring of the bat population.

The latest survey, initiated by FFI and carried out by Janine Robinson for the University of East Anglia, has found that there are now at least 22,000 Pemba flying foxes, but there could be as many as 35,600. 

As a result of the conservation program, the bat is no longer hunted down. In fact, many locals are joining community-led groups in an effort to help save the Pemba flying fox. 

The giant fruit bat, which has a wing span of up to 5.5 feet, was once considered a delicacy. As a result, it was almost hunted to extinction.  Traditionally, the Pemba flying fox was hunted using simple traps on long sticks. More recently though, shotguns were being used to kill the bats.

Because of the rising population of the Pemba flying fox, in 2004 it was downgraded to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. And now that the population is thriving once again, FFI have now closed the project “confident in the dedication of the Forestry Department and local communities to protect this charismatic species”.

According to the latest IUCN red list, almost 17,000 of the world’s plant and animal species are facing extinction. 

Of the 44,838 plant and animal species evaluated by IUCN, 38% have been catalogued as threatened with extinction.

The IUCN red list, which is the international benchmark for the threat level of animals and plants, has recently been updated to produce the 2008 version. And things don’t look too good.

Things look particularly grim for the world’s mammals. Of the 5,487 known mammal species, 1,139 are facing extinction. Marine mammals are at most risk, with more than one in three facing extinction.

Furthermore, IUCN has been unable to classify a threat level for 836 mammals due to lack of data. This means that the number of threatened mammals is probably higher than the reported 21 percent, and could be as high as 36 percent, according to IUCN scientist Jan Schipper. 

Statistics

Here are some statistics which outline the number of species evaluated, and the percentage of those that are under threat from extinction:

It’s important to note that this table may make things appear to be even worse than they are. This is because, not all species were evaluated. Generally, the table is biased towards species that are thought to be threatened, species for which data are readily available, and under-reporting of Least Concern species.

Having said that, it’s still concerning to see so many species (16,928 to be exact) under threat from extinction. 

What Is the IUCN Red List?

Here’s IUCN’s description of the Red List:

The IUCN Red List is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. It uses a set of criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world. With its strong scientific base, the IUCN Red List is recognized as the most authoritative guide to the status of biological diversity.

The Full IUCN Red List

The full IUCN red list is available via a searchable database at http://www.iucnredlist.org. You can also download this Excel spreadsheet containing statistics of the 2008 list.