1 Rouble Ringed Seal (the Ladoga subspecies)

Part of Russia's long-running "Red Book" wildlife series, which has documented endangered Soviet and post-Soviet fauna since 1993. The Ladoga ringed seal (Pusa hispida ladogensis) is endemic to Lake Ladoga — the largest freshwater lake in Europe — where its population had been severely reduced by commercial hunting and, later, industrial pollution from the Volkhov River basin. By the time this coin was issued, estimates placed the surviving population at somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 individuals.