Help Rebuild Sandy Ridge
We are writing with some sad news and to ask for your immediate help for red wolves in northeastern North Carolina. As you know from national news coverage, many areas within the red wolf recovery range were devastated by Hurricane Isabel just two weeks ago. In the aftermath of the hurricane, red wolves need your help more than ever.
Fish and Wildlife Service biologists are working hard to make sure all the wild red wolves survived the storm. Sadly though, the captive facility at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge known as Sandy Ridge, where wolves are housed prior to release or for medical and other reasons, was hit extremely hard. Sandy Ridge consisted of an intern housing cabin, 14 wolf enclosures, two storage sheds, a well and pump to provide water and a perimeter fence that enclosed most of the facility. Isabel’s winds destroyed nearly all of the Sandy Ridge site and in her wake, several wolves escaped from the badly damaged enclosures. Fortunately, most have since been re-captured. The biologists and volunteers are salvaging all that they can from the wreckage of what used to be one of the largest red wolf captive breeding centers in the nation.
The Red Wolf Coalition has always conducted our red wolf howling safaris at Sandy Ridge but the future of those events in now uncertain. It is likely that until the facility is rebuilt, we will not be able to offer these popular events, a major loss of educational opportunity for the red wolf program and a major loss of income for us.
The destruction of the Sandy Ridge is a shocking blow for anyone involved with red wolf recovery. With your help it can be replaced, but one of our resident wolf friends cannot. He was officially known as #520, and he was the most photographed and filmed red wolf in the whole program. Both Jennifer and I fell in love with #520, more affectionately known as “Zeus," when we interned with the Fish and Wildlife Service. In fact, Jennifer was an intern when he was born there 12 years ago! Over time, Zeus became too old to contribute genetics to the captive breeding program. However, his future still held great significance. The Red Wolf Coalition and the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed that #520 would make a magnificent contribution to the recovery effort by serving as the first wolf on display at the proposed Red Wolf Center in Columbia, NC. We were understandably distraught by the news that during the storm, a tree fell onto the den box with Zeus inside, killing him. The one consolation, biologists tell us, is that the wolf’s death came swiftly.
This is a difficult time for the red wolf and for the Red Wolf Coalition. The effects of Isabel will directly affect the Coalition since the future of our Howling Safaris is uncertain, and photo and touring opportunities at the captive facility are nonexistent. We are depending on your help today to rebuild the Sandy Ridge facility and continue the critical work on the Red Wolf Center. It is more essential than ever that we build the Red Wolf Center, now that Mother Nature showed us the importance of having more than one captive facility in the recovery area for this rare species. Your contributions are greatly needed. Please send your specially marked Isabel donation to the Red Wolf Coalition, PO Box 96, Columbia, NC 27925. Any amount will help. All proceeds will go directly to the two captive facilities.
We are grateful to you for helping us ensure that the howl of the red wolf will continue to be heard in eastern North Carolina. We can’t go forward without you. Thank you!
