The North Carolina Zoo announces the birth of five critically endangered American red wolves as part of its American red wolf breeding program. The five new pups – three males, two females – were born Tuesday, April 21. The pups and their mother are all healthy and doing well.

There are currently only 15-20 red wolves found in the wild, only in eastern North Carolina, making them the most endangered canid in the world.

In celebration of North Carolina, the rare pups were named after plants found in the state. The names for the males are Oak (Appalachian Oak), Cedar (Red Cedar) and Sage (Azure Sage). The females are named Lily (Carolina Lily, the state’s wildflower) and Aster (Piedmont Aster). They are the offspring of Piglet (female) and Jewell (male). This is the first litter for this pair.

This litter brings the number of red wolves in the Zoo’s breeding program to 25, making it the second-largest pack in the U.S. after Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.

The pups are being kept in a quiet, non-public viewing area of the Zoo and have minimal contact with staff and keepers. This allows their mother to raise the pups with the least amount of stress in a natural habitat.

“Congratulations to the North Carolina Zoo for playing an essential part toward helping this critically endangered species recover,” said Susi H. Hamilton, secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources. “It’s yet another example of the Zoo doing amazing work to conserve wildlife and wild places.”

Once common throughout the southeastern United States, the wolves were driven to near extinction during the late 1960s, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began an aggressive conservation effort – the American Red Wolf Recovery Program – that led to new ways to track and protect the species.

The Zoo has been part of the American Red Wolf Recovery Program since 1994. The Zoo’s red wolf pack has bred eleven pups over the past three years and has successfully bred 34 wolves since the program began. Currently, there are about 240 (that number can change daily during the whelping season) red wolves in breeding programs throughout the U.S. Red wolves normally have three to five pups per litter.

The North Carolina Zoo led the successful efforts to have the American red wolf become part of the Association of Zoo and Aquariums SAFE (Saving Species From Extinction) program.

Under this program, the Zoo leads in conserving the species and growing both the population in the wild and the animals under human care. 

To learn more about the North Carolina Zoo and our red wolf program please visit www.nczoo.org

As fresh produce and meat becomes more and more scarce in Walmarts and Harris Teeters during COVID-19, a growing number of North Carolinians are turning to local farms to keep their pantries stocked.

Many are now turning to a new app that was originally planned to increase agro-tourism in our state but is now becoming a valuable resource for residents.

The Visit NC Farms app now represents 30 counties across North Carolina and currently lists location information, product availability, and pricing for hundreds of North Carolina farms.

 

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MEET OUR FARMERS! 🙌🏼 Tumbling Shoals Farm in Wilkes will have a CSA option and virtual farm stand this season, check out their website! Download the app and connect for updates! @tumblingshoalsfarm #visitncfarms #localfood #localfarmers #strawberries #virtualfarmstand #CSA #grownraisedcaughtmade #communitysupportedagriculture

A post shared by Visit NC Farms (@visitncfarms) on Mar 26, 2020 at 9:35am PDT

The app was developed and built by Don Macke, who is also the co-founder of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.

“The key is for rural communities to recognize that they have valuable assets, one of which is the very nature of rural life,” Macke said. “In an increasingly congested and impersonal world, there is great appeal to a close-knit community. The qualities associated with rural life are particularly conducive to the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the free flow of information, skills and resources”.

You can find out more information or download their Apple or Android app here.

A developing tropical disturbance could become the first named storm of 2020 by next week according to the National Weather Service.

The NHC just upgraded the probability of a new subtropical depression that’s been forming over the Bermuda triangle. They now say that there is a 70% (HIGH) chance of it developing into a subtropical storm over the next 5 days. If it does develop, they NWS will give the new storm the name ‘Arthur’.

The NWS sent out the following alert earlier today:

A broad area of low pressure is expected to develop late this 
week or early this weekend a couple of hundred miles north of 
the Bahamas. Environmental conditions appear conducive for gradual 
development of this system, and a subtropical depression or storm 
is likely to form this weekend while it moves northeastward over 
the western Atlantic. The next Special Tropical Weather Outlook on 
this system will be issued by 9 AM EDT Wednesday, or earlier, if 
necessary.

The official Atlantic Coast hurricane season for 2020 runs from June 1st through November 30th, so if Arthur does develop into a full blown storm, it would be nearly a month early.

NWS officials are reminding all residents in Atlantic Coast states to start preparing for the upcoming hurricane season.

In case of a power outage, make sure to have the following emergency items stocked in your home;

• Car charger for cell phones and other devices
• Clean drinking water (recommended 1 gallon per person per day, minimum three days)
• Flashlights 
• Batteries: Extra batteries for all of your devices
• Weather radio/clock
• Non-perishable food
• First aid kit

We will continue to update this article as this storm develops. 

With nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized for coronavirus being at least 50 years old, and around 90 percent having pre-existing conditions, it’s important for states with larger vulnerable populations to have greater protective measures. Vulnerability isn’t just health-related, though, as many people are harmed by the economic effects of the pandemic. To show where the biggest concentrations of “at-risk” people live, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the States with the Most Vulnerable Populations to Coronavirus.

To identify which states have the highest concentration of vulnerable people, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 key metrics in 3 overall categories: medical vulnerability, housing vulnerability and financial vulnerability. Our data set ranges from the share of the population aged 65 and older to the share of the homeless population that is unsheltered and the share of the entire population living in poverty.

South Carolina was ranked the 9th lowest and the list and North Carolina was ranked the 11th lowest, along with having the lowest unemployment recipiency rate in the nation at 9.32 percent, which is 6.1 times lower than in New Jersey, the highest at 57.17 percent.

States with the Most Vulnerable Populations to COVID-19