Alligator River/Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge P. O. Box 1969 Manteo, North Carolina 27954 Contact: Bonnie Strawser - 252-473-1131 Back to News Home Page

News Release

(left) Photo credit: Gary Crane, COA Students Trisha Archibald, Ramie Sanderlin, Dan Hossack, and Josh Glover are shown with Refuge Interpretor Susie Ahlfeld.
(right) Photo credit: Susie Ahlfeld, FWS The Pea Island Visitor Center offers opportunities to see native wildlife in their native habitats.

A College of the Albemarle art class recently took advantage of the beautiful mounts displayed on the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center for a recent project. The students of Gary Crane’s Art 131 Drawing I and Art 132 Drawing II classes were assigned to draw a real life subject while at Pea Island using the mounts inside the Visitor Center. The Pea Island Visitor Center has numerous mounts of native wildlife found on the Outer Banks including loggerhead sea turtles, river otter, and snow geese. All of the mounts are displayed in cases with habitat surrounding them, giving the art students a realistic idea of where the animal may be found in the environment. The teacher, Gary Crane, has been bringing his drawing classes to Pea Island’s Visitor Center for years, attributing the “natural light combined with rea-life subjects” as having a great impact on the student’s rendering skills.