The first Pacific walrus born at the New York Aquarium has passed away due to complications from pneumonia.

Sad news: Despite the best efforts of a dedicated veterinary team, Akituusaq, the first Pacific walrus born in the New York Aquarium’s 113-year history, has died at the age of two.

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In an exciting effort to protect its natural heritage, the National Environment Protection Agency of Afghanistan has released the country’s first list of protected species, which includes 20 mammals, 7 birds, 4 plants, an amphibian and an insect.

The protections come at a crucial time for many of the species, since a previous Presidential Decree which outlawed hunting of endangered animals expired last March. Among the animals now protected from pelt-traders and poachers are snow leopards, wolves and brown bears.

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Good news from Afghanistan this week: the country declared its first internationally recognized national park today, called Band-e-Amir, which includes a striking series of six deep blue lakes in one of the country’s best-known natural areas.

The area of Band-e-Amir is near the Bamyan Valley, where 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues once stood before being destroyed by the Taliban.

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The designated area, to be called Deng Deng National Park, is approximately 224 square miles in size, which is roughly the size of Chicago’s city limits.

Deng Deng is the second National Park created by the Cameroonian government in the last three months, and is the latest in swift actions taken to help protect the country’s abundant but threatened wildlife. Aside from the gorillas, the park will also shield a rich population of chimpanzees, elephants, buffaloes and bongos.

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According to a new Wildlife Conservation Society study, reef fish levels along middle class coastal communities in Eastern Africa tend to be significantly lower– up to 4 times lower– than along areas bordering wealthy or poor communities.

Reasons for the disparity are numerous, and they involve a complicated interplay between traditional customs, economic development and population dynamics. But middle class apathy could also be to blame.

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The population of elephants in Zakouma National Park has been reduced by almost 2/3 in the last two years due to organized poaching for ivory. Only 1000 savannah elephants are now thought to survive in the park, and an urgent effort to save them has been launched by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“Zakouma is a last stand for elephants in the Sahel. It’s incredibly heartbreaking to stand before a dead elephant missing only its tusks. How can we stand idly by and watch this population continue to get slaughtered because of simple human greed?” - Dr. Mike Fay, WCS conservationist in Chad

Ivory poachers use automatic weapons to take down the elephants, especially when herds venture outside of the park during seasonal travels. Park guards have been killed by poachers, and civil unrest in Chad makes enforcing conservation efforts extremely difficult. Zakouma is only 160 miles from Darfur.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the government of Cameroon have just created a new national park to preserve habitat for the Cross River gorilla, the world’s most endangered great ape.

Besides the Cross River gorillas, the 261 square mile Takamanda National Park will also protect populations of forest elephants, chimpanzees, and a rare primate and close relative of the mandrill, the drill.

Takamanda also forms part of a trans-boundary protected area with Cross River National Park in Nigeria, safeguarding about 115 gorillas (a third of the Cross River gorilla population). Trans-boundary protected areas allow species to roam freely between nations.

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Global Warming is not just about melting ice caps and rising temperatures.  Scientists continue to discover new ways in which the “butterfly effect” of global warming could transform life on Earth as we know it.  The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released a report on October 7th, naming 12 deadly human-wildlife diseases that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change.

The report, entitled The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, was released at the IUCN Conservation Congress being held this week in Barcelona, Spain.  The report illustrates examples of how certain disease could spread as a result of rising temperatures and precipitation levels.

“We’ve seen Lyme disease work its way up from the US into Canada, and West Nile fever as well,” said William Karesh, director of WCS’s global health programs.  “Basically what you have now are fewer frozen nights in this region, and that allows the ticks and mosquitoes that carry these diseases to survive further north.”

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