LUIGI BOITANI Istituto di Zoologia dell’Universita di Roma Monitoring the extinction of the Italian Monk Seals (Mona-chus monachus) with a indication of the possibilities for their survival. In the past thirty years an increasing number of papers have been published on the general status of Monk Seal in the Medi- terranean (King, 1956; Tortonese, 1958; Van Wijngaarden, 1962; Ronald, 1973; Ronald and Healey, 1974; Boulva, 1975; Sergeant and al., 1978). However, up to date there are no papers dealing with the special situation of the species in the Italian seas: infor- mations were available only on the presence and status of Monk Seal in specific localities such as Sardinia (Lungo, 1935; Furreddu, 1972a, 1972b, 1972c, 1973a, 1973b; Reinhardt and Schenk 1969; Scott 1971; Bareham and Furreddu 1975), Sicily (Massa, 1972) and Puglia (Cornaglia, 1974). A recent paper by Bruno (1976) reviews the history of the species in the Adriatic; general informa- tions on the Italian coasts were also given recently but without detailed data (Tortonese, 1957; Toschi, 1965; Pratesi, 1970). Last century papers are relevant only for an historical review of the species status and will not be cit-ed here. In this paper the status of the Monac/our momzc/our will be reported up to date (1980) and the conservation plan prepared by World Wildlife Fund will be discussed, in relation to the parallel programmes undertaken in the Mediterranean. Project {.1982 of World Wildlife Fund (1977-79) was set up to monitor ‘the situation of Monk Seal in Italy, to develop and to implement the most suitable conservation program: this part of the project is still under way and it is expected to be adapted to the suggestions and results of the Rhodos Conference on Monk Seal (2-5 May, 1978).