A warm winter is wreaking havoc on the young ring seal population in the Baltic Sea north of Germany, and observers fear that about 500 pups have already died in recent weeks.

The World Wildlife Federation, an international organization focusing on conservation work to protect endangered species and habitat, is ringing alarm bells.

"The situation is dire. It is entirely possible that in some regions not a single seal pup of the estimated 1,500 newborns will survive," the WWF Baltic Group spokeswoman in Stralsund, Germany, Cathrin Muenster, told ABC News.

Muenster explained that the ice cover is melting too quickly, forcing the baby seals into the water too early. "There they starve and die a painful death from the cold," she said. "You can call it 'game over' in some regions."

Click here to read the complete story on ABC.com.