From arriving at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher (NCAFF) as the first Asian small-clawed otters, to becoming first-time parents and welcoming a second litter in less than a year, Leia and Quincy have captured the hearts of the community. The parents and four offspring will be moving to a new home at the North Carolina Zoo, as the NCAFF otter team begins a new chapter in their work to save this vulnerable species.

Say Farewell with Us Virtually or In Person

NCAFF will host Farewell Furry Friends on Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. at the Otters on the Edge habitat with an ice cake enrichment for the Leia and Quincy family. The community can also follow along on Facebook.

Milli & Binx

The Aquarium is excited to introduce Milli, a 6-year-old female and Binx, a 4-year-old male who visitors will soon see at the “Otters on the Edge” habitat. The otter team will give the rambunctious pair an opportunity to explore their new space at their own pace. They will have a waterfall to slide down and a pond to twirl in. Milli is one of two otters that the Aquarium welcomed in January 2024 from Hong Kong. She was born to parents who were confiscated by the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. The team transported Binx to the Aquarium in fall 2024 from an AZA facility in Florida as a mate for Milli.

“They are the first animals that visitors will see when they step into the Aquarium and their mischievous antics create an instant connection,” said Joanna Zazzali, director, NCAFF. “It’s so rewarding for our staff and volunteers to share their story with the community and inspire individual action to save them.”

Rare Opportunity

Because Milli is from Hong Kong, her genetics offer a rare opportunity for breeding a species whose parents are from the wild.

“A successful breeding of this pair will bring in new genetics making it very valuable to the sustainability of the SSP in its goal of maintaining a genetically diverse population,” said Shannon Anderson, lead otter keeper.

Species Survival Plan®

Milli and Binx have some big paws to fill as the breeding of Leia and Quincy yielded three female pups in May 2022 and one female and two males in January 2023. The Aquarium celebrated the new pups and success in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan® (SSP) Program. The North Carolina Aquariums are accredited through the AZA, a non-profit organization dedicated to the highest standards in the areas of conservation, animal welfare, education, science and recreation. The SSP mission is to manage an ex situ species population with the interest and cooperation of AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums.

“Welcoming Milli and Binx to the otter program at the Aquarium is very important to our mission and no doubt they will also capture the hearts of the community,” said Anderson. “As with Leia and Quincy, we are focusing our daily work on the long-term goals of saving this species.”

Vulnerable Species

These attention-grabbing animals are a vulnerable species —Asian small-clawed otter populations are in decline. They are native to Indonesia, southern China, Southeast Asia and the Philippines and there, they face threats from residential and commercial development, deforestation, the illegal pet trade, pollution, climate change and poaching.

Two of the females in Leia and Quincy’s first litter found new homes at other AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums. Otters on the Edge at the Aquarium is also home to Asta and Ray, a mother-son duo who have their own habitat.

Individual Actions to Save this Species

Individual actions can protect local species and they can create a ripple effect that can lead to protections for species across the globe.

• Switch to Smithsonian Bird Friendly ® coffee—it’s produced on farms that preserve the natural habitat for different species, preventing deforestation and destruction of homes for animals like Asian small-clawed otters.
• Don’t ever support illegally traded wild animals as pets.
• Don’t buy furs.

Online tickets are required to visit the Aquarium. Visitors can plan their trip and reserve tickets at NCAFF Admissions.

Smoking costs us more than $600 billion per year, and the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on The Real Cost of Smoking by State.

The site calculated the potential monetary losses brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke, including the lifetime and annual costs of a pack of cigarettes per day, health care expenditures, income losses and other costs.

The Financial Cost of Smoking in North Carolina:

• Overall rank for North Carolina: 47^th
• Out-of-Pocket Cost per Smoker – $137,006 (Rank: 47^th)
• Financial-Opportunity Cost per Smoker – $2,322,526 (Rank: 47^th)
• Health-Care Cost per Smoker – $150,944 (Rank: 43^rd)
• Income Loss per Smoker – $571,847 (Rank: 40^th)
• Other Costs per Smoker – $12,582 (Rank: 20^th)
• Total Cost Over Lifetime per Smoker: $3,194,906
• Total Cost per Year per Smoker: $66,561

To view the full report, you can visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/the-financial-cost-of-smoking-by-state/9520

The 424 national parks administered by the US National Park Service (NPS) have been steadily rebounding from the Covid pandemic with one here in the Tar Heel state landing on the top spot for the most visited in America.

“We’re excited to see our efforts to increase visitation to parks in the off-season and in parks that are less well-known paying off,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said in an online statement this week.

Out of roughly 312 million visits to all national parks last year, 15.71 million were racked up along the peaks of the North Carolina mountains.

The 469 miles long Blue Ridge Parkway National Park toped the Golden Gate National Recreation Area by 70,000 visitors (Golden Gate saw 15.64 million in 2022), the Lincoln Memorial by roughly 8 million visitors (Lincoln attracted 7.83 million people in 2022), and the Grand Canyon by about 11 million visitors (The Grand Canyon saw 4.73 million visitors last year).

You can see the full ranking of the most visited parks here.

Here are some interesting facts about the most visited national park in our nation from the official website of the Blue Ridge Parkway:

• It is the longest road planned as a single unit in the United States.
• It is an elongated park, protecting significant mountain landscapes far beyond the shoulders of the road itself.
• It is a series of parks providing the visitor access to high mountain passes, a continuous series of panoramic views, the boundaries of its limited right-of-way rarely apparent and miles of the adjacent countryside seemingly a part of the protected scene.
• It is a “museum of the managed American countryside,” preserving the roughhewn log cabin of the mountain pioneer, the summer home of a textile magnate, and traces of early industries such as logging, railways, and an old canal.
• It is the product of a series of major public works projects which provided a boost to the travel and tourism industry and helped the Appalachian region climb out the depths of the Great Depression.
• Stretching almost 500 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge mountains through North Carolina and Virginia, it encompasses some of the oldest settlements of both pre-historic and early European settlement.