atch a wa e with ur ine

by Danielle Puleo

When you think of the Outer Banks, a lot of things come to mind: sandy beaches, fishing trips, wild horses, local legends and … surfing! Producing the largest waves on the east coast of the United States, OBX has a well-known reputation amongst the surfing community. But waves are unpredictable and surfing conditions can change rapidly. Luckily, there’s a team of forecasters that works daily to provide surf updates to the masses, making it that much easier to catch the best waves.

Rob Mitstifer, lead forecaster at Surfline, starts his day early, well before the sun peeks its head up over the ocean. “The key thing about getting surf reports out is to get them out within a half hour of sunrise,” Mitstifer explains at he scans various surf cams at his desk in the late afternoon. There are several factors that comprise the big picture when it comes to surf conditions: self-observations, buoy status, wind data, tide condition and weather predictions. Once the forecaster gathers all of the information in regard to these details, he can have a clearer picture of what the surf will be like once the day begins.

“After I digest it all, I write up a synopsis of what the surf is doing and what it will probably do the rest of the day.” Mitstifer, for the most part, covers several regions along the east coast, forecasting surf conditions from Maine through South Carolina. As a New Jersey native, he knows the waters of the northeast well, and grew up surfing those swells. Carrying a large love of the sport,

Mitstifer utilizes his fervor daily. “It’s such a passionate thing from when you’re young … I learned how to surf when I was 10.” Best described by the avid surfer as “addicting,” surfing relies heavily on the weather, which is why Surfline was created and has evolved into a worldwide forecasting company.

The surf summaries posted to the Surfline platform give subscribers a good idea of what to expect out on the ocean. Approximate surf heights are given, along with ratings on wave condition and quality; these ratings are subjective, but go into detail of what a surfer can expect to see: What is the shape of the wave? Are the waves clean, glassy, choppy? When will it hit high tide and low tide? Mitstifer noted, “It takes knowing how to surf to do the job and get into specifics.”

Some days are busier than others at the office. “The weather could be mellow,” the lead forecaster explained, “or sometimes we can have stretch of days with multiple storms and [forecasting] takes more time.” Mitstifer shared that the slow times are slow, and the busy times are really, really busy.

By the afternoon, Mitstifer is grinding away at the “nitty gritty” detailed forecast for the upcoming days and weeks. In between reports, he ensures quality control on Surfline’s website and notes any requests that have come in throughout the day. Surfline has worked with major events in the past, such as the Olympics and

World Surf League events, to produce accurate surf forecasts. In addition, Mitstifer makes any necessary changes to the daily reports if weather conditions begin to turn.

Through a combination of physical observations, data collection and 984 surf cameras placed all throughout the globe, the Surfline team delivers crucial information to surfers worldwide every single day. “At the end of the day, we like to think that our jobs boil down to telling people what the best time to surf is.” An essential tool for those who love riding the waves just as much as Mitstifer does.

At the Red Wolf Center in Columbia, two red wolves—known as 2246 and 2247—live in the protected safety of a wildlife enclosure. The beautiful yet elusive creatures are shy, and if you go in person to one of the educational talks, you may not catch a glimpse of them.

However, through the live webcam at ncwf. org/wildlife/red-wolves/#live-cam, the wolves can be observed at any time of day as they run, rest, eat and play, including after the center is closed for the day.

Red wolves are the most endangered species in the United States. They used to roam half the country from Pennsylvania to Florida and as far west as Texas, but today the red wolf lives only in North Carolina’s Albemarle Peninsula. There are less than 20 red wolves in the wild, and several hundred others in protected centers. Two of those protected wolves can be found in an enclosure behind the Red Wolf Center, located at 1221 Highway 94 South in Columbia.

The Coastland Times caught up with Red Wolf Center education and outreach coordinator Katerina Ramos, who operates the center as North Carolina Wildlife Federation with a memorandum of understanding with Fish and Wildlife Service, to answer some questions about the life and habits of the two red wolves.

Q: Tell me about each of the wolves. Do they have distinct personalities, habits?

A: The exhibit red wolves we have at the red wolf center are two 5-year-old brothers from the Durham Life and Science Museum. When trying to tell the two apart, we look for who has the most “red” coloration on their coat. 2247 has more red coloration, he also seems to be the one primarily sitting on top of the den. However if you were to catch a time where there

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by Summer Stevens

are programs ongoing, he is most commonly hiding in the den. 2246 is more distinguished by his favorite place being behind the den, he is also the one to do more laps around the enclosure to get a better look at what’s happening beyond the area.

Q: Do they have nicknames? Why do you call them by numbers?

A: We do not use their given nicknames at the Red Wolf Center because we do not want to encourage the anthropomorphization of red wolves. The red wolf is a wild animal and sometimes using names makes people equate them as pets. Instead, we encourage the public to recognize that by referring to them as their stud book identifiers, 2246 and 2247. The studbook number also has meaning, it isn’t just a random number. When the last remaining red wolves were brought in from the wild in the late 1970s to save them from extinction and to start a captive breeding program, which is now referred to as the Red Wolf SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) program, they started with red wolf number 1. And now every red wolf that is born in the wild or born in captivity is given the next number. So just based on the numbers of these brothers we know that there have been over 2200 red wolves born since that time. Currently there is a 14-year-old female in the wild who’s number is 1743 and the five pups born on Alligator River NWR last spring that are now yearlings are 2410, 2411, 2412, 2413 and 2414, so we can tell from just their studbook numbers that they are littermates but we can also see that from when 1734 was born in 2009 to when 2414 was born in 2022 that almost 700 red wolves have been born.

Q: What does a day in the life of a red wolf (in captivity) look like?

A: The day in the life of a red wolf in captivity mostly looks like exploration of the habitat in their enclosure, resting, eating, interacting with one another, and interacting with their enrichment when it’s given.

Q: Will they ever go back to the wild? And if so, what does that process look like?

A: 2246 and 2247 were born in captivity at one of the 49 Red Wolf SAFE facilities. Although it is unlikely they would be released into the wild, all red wolves under human care are cared and managed as if they could be released into the wild. However, if they met the proper criteria to be released they would be moved from a public exhibit enclosure to an off-exhibit enclosure at one of the Red Wolf SAFE facilities or to an acclimation pen under the care of the Red Wolf Recovery program. There they would reside to become acclimated to the wild and fed strictly their natural prey items such as white-tailed deer, rabbits, rodents, beaver, nutria, etc. After significant time in the acclimation pen the Red Wolf Recovery Program team would open the door of the enclosure to let them leave the pen at their pace. Sometimes captive-born red wolves leave the pen in a matter of minutes, sometimes they take several hours and sometimes it takes days. The doors to the acclimation pen will remain open for any period of time as the captive-born red wolves get used to their new wild environment.

Q: Similar to the question above, why not just open the gates and let them back into the wild? Why keep them?

A: From the moment they are born, red wolves born in the wild grow up experiencing all that it means to be a wild animal and being taught from day one by their parents what it means to be a wild red wolf and how to survive on the landscape. They are able to freely move about the landscape, both as a family unit but also to explore on their own to learn about the world around them. They learn from their parents and through trial and error how to hunt prey, avoid dangers and navigate through different habitats. All of these things are difficult to replicate in controlled environments. As a result, the release of captive born animals into the wild is a difficult undertaking and requires many factors to be successful.

Q: What do they like to eat? Who feeds them? If someone wanted to check the webcam for feeding times, what time would they look?

A: Captive red wolves are fed what is called a carnivore log with other food items mixed in periodically. Carnivore logs (or C-logs as we refer to them) are a mixture of meat and viscera in a ground up form. We currently have a volunteer caretaker for the red wolf brothers that gives them their food and maintains their enclosure. The feeding times for the red wolves vary on the time of day as it depends on the volunteer’s schedule. However at this point in time the brothers are fed three times a week.

Q: Why did the red wolves come to Columbia? Were they sick or injured?

A: Individuals with the Red Wolf SAFE program are moved from one location to another for a variety of reasons including to form breeding pairs, to be companions for red wolves that are past breeding age, for exhibitions that are open to the public for outreach and educational purposes, etc. The red wolves currently in the enclosure open to the public at the Red Wolf Center came to Columbia because the female from the previous red wolf pair that was at the Red Wolf Center was moved to the Wolf Conservation Center to be part of a breeding pair. The male she was previously with at the Red Wolf Center has since passed away. The brothers were born and raised in captivity and at this point are not selected to be released into the wild. We do maintain two red wolves at the exhibit enclosure at the Red Wolf Center in Columbia for educational purposes. The opportunity to see how shy and elusive red wolves are is something that is made more real when the public sees it in action while attending a program, particularly at the Red Wolf Center located within the Eastern North Carolina Red Wolf Population (ENC RWP) area, which is the only place in the world where red wolves roam in the wild.

Q: Do they howl? What/who do they howl at?

A: The exhibit red wolves do howl on occasion. Given the proximity to Columbia, the most likely thing they will howl at is emergency vehicle sirens. Other times we have heard them howl back to other canids in the area.

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