Currituck National Wildlife Refuge protects 8,316 acres of barrier-island habitat at the northern end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Established in 1984, it preserves a full range of coastal environments from Atlantic beaches and dunes to wetlands, maritime forest, shrub thickets, brackish marsh, mudflats, and forested islands along Currituck Sound. This diversity supports many plants and animals of the eastern United States, including waterfowl, wading birds, shorebirds, raptors, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. The refuge also shelters threatened and endangered species such as piping plover, sea turtles, and seabeach amaranth, while Monkey Island is notable as a bird rookery and for its native Sabal minor palm.