Natural History
The refuge contains ocean beach, dunes, upland, fresh and brackish water ponds, salt flats, and salt marsh. There are more than 365 species of birds, 25 species of mammals, 24 species of reptiles, and five species of amphibians. There are concentrations of ducks, geese, swans, wading birds, shore birds, and raptors. There are neotropical migrants that are seasonally abundant on refuge. The refuge has 1,000 acres (4 km²) of manageable waterfowl impoundments, and there are several shorebird nesting areas and wading bird rookeries are located in the refuge. Endangered and threatened species include shortnose sturgeon, american alligator, red wolf, peregrine falcons, loggerhead sea turtles, green sea turtle, leatherback sea turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, red-cockaded woodpecker, roseate tern, West Indian manatee, seabeach amaranth, and piping plovers.
The refuge area was historically used for market waterfowl hunting, commercial fishing, farming, and livestock operations.
Read more about this topic: Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
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“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)