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N.C. Zoo Announces Birth Of Five Endangered American Red Wolves

An attendant holds one of the new red wolf pups at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. Photo credit Moriah Angott/North Carolina Zoo

The North Carolina Zoo has announced the birth of five critically endangered American red wolves. 

The litter of new pups includes three males and two females, all healthy and doing well.

They're being kept in a quiet, non-public area of the zoo, allowing their mother to raise them in a natural habitat with the least amount of stress. 

The rare pups were named after plants found in North Carolina. The males are Oak, Cedar, and Sage, while the females have been named Lily and Aster.

According to a news release, there are currently 15 to 20 red wolves found in the wild, only in eastern North Carolina, making them the most endangered canid in the world.

They were driven to near-extinction in the 1960s, but a federal conservation effort has led to new ways to track and protect the species.

The North Carolina Zoo has successfully bred 34 wolves since the program began.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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