Yesterday, WCS released some great camera trap photos of snow leopards in the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan. It’s a fascinating place, generally removed from a lot of the unrest that’s been afflicting the rest of the country. Some effort underway to get an international peace park set up in that area.

Afghanistan’s only pig (in the Kabul zoo) has been quarantined.

• Thanks to Kerry Knudsen (UC-Riverside), may I introduce the new species Caloplca obamae. I wonder who should be more pleased, the lichen or the president.
• “Wombat poo paper proves a hit.” What.
• Congratulations to Afghanistan, and to WCS for helping to set it up, on its first National Park, Band-e-Amir. Afghanistan, needless to say, is not an easy place to do conservation, but WCS has been doing amazing things in the region, dating back to George Schaller’s work in the 1970s on snow leopards, not to mention the tireless work of Peter Zahler. Unfortunately, the Bronx Zoo is not faring as well. THEY’RE CLOSING THE WORLD OF DARKNESS.
• I am going to go out on a limb and say that no species so large and abundant will ever be newly-described again. Acacia fumosa.
• Here’s 100 pictures for Earth Day. What? Every day is Earth Day. Happy Earth Day.