♪♪ -[ Chuckles ] So this is a little American alligator.

It's not a crocodile.

Okay, here we go.

Here's a couple more.

In fact, one of them just flew.

♪♪ ♪♪ The first step to taking care of our local habitats and the plants and animals that live in them is to gain a really good understanding of just what we have.

Today, we're going to talk to a couple local researchers who are doing conservation work right here in the low country.

♪♪ If you are a low-country nature artist looking for an ideal subject, then the diamondback terrapin might be a perfect choice.

They have bold patterns and a pleasing mug that would highlight any canvas, but the problem is, terrapins like this aren't nearly as common as they used to be.

In fact, their numbers have declined throughout much of their range.

Today, we're going to meet a couple of biologists who are looking at ways to hopefully increase terrapin numbers right here in the low country.

Biologist Erin Levesque works for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and she's agreed to let us help with a project today.

Thank you, Erin.

-Thanks, Tony.

Great to have you here.

-So I guess the first step is, what is happening to terrapins?

Why are they decreasing in numbers?

-Well, we've seen trends in the state decline since 1995, slight downward trends, and we believe it's because they face threats from the time they're in the nest until the time they're adults.

So when they're in the nest, they face raccoons digging them up, crabs getting to them.

Once they emerge from the nest and they're in the high marsh, wading birds think that they're really tasty snacks, and then even once they get to adulthood, they could be captured in crab pots or females sometimes are killed in the roads as they're crossing to find nesting areas.

Since 1995, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has been recording captures of diamondback terrapins in our trammel-net survey, which is coast-wide.

-Erin, as you said, these are long-lived species, and I actually caught an animal in 1985 that is part of a study on Kiawah Island, and it was an adult female when I caught her in 1985, and other people claim they caught her, but I think I did.

There were other researchers on the team, but anyway, that animal was caught just a couple of years ago in the same creek, same animal, because they were individually marked, so we knew who they were.

-That's amazing.

-Think about that!

That turtle could be 50, 60 years old easily.

-That's amazing, and that highlights another really cool aspect about diamondback terrapin biology is that we see this high site fidelity, especially seasonal site fidelity, where we know that they migrate maybe to find feeding areas, certainly to find nesting areas, but you can find them in the same season in the same location year after year.

They're really cool animals.

-They are.

So we're in a pond here at Waddell Mariculture Center, so what are we up to today?

-So we're actually going to capture some terrapins that we've been headstarting here at the mariculture center.

-All right.

This is my kind of day.

-This is my coinvestigator, Andrew Grosse.

-Hey, Andrew.

Thanks for letting us help today.

-Absolutely.

Glad to have you guys here.

-So what's the plan?

-Well, we've got this pond mostly drained down.

We have about 16 turtles in here, and basically, we're going to try to catch them all.

-Yeah, I'm already looking.

I'm starting to find -- I'm already looking for turtles.

Now, this is going to be great.

-These ones are all females, and... -So how do you know they're females?

-Well, actually something very cool with diamondback terrapins and lots of other reptile species, the temperature at which the eggs are incubated actually determines if they're boys or girls, and so at warmer temperatures, we get females, and at cooler temperatures, we get males, so all the turtles in here were incubated at warmer temperatures in an incubator back at our lab, and it would be at a female-producing temperature.

-And it's just the opposite for crocodilians, I think.

-Exactly, yup.

The idea with these is they're only 2-1/2-year-old turtles, and we're interested in looking at the time at first reproduction, and so being 2 1/2 years old, that's obviously a lot earlier than a wild turtle would be... -Yeah, so, like, how old would a wild turtle need to be to reach reproductive maturity?

-Well, we usually say about 4 to 6 years for a wild female turtle, maybe older.

It's really hard to age them, so it's difficult to say for sure, but... -Of course, it depends on how much they eat and things like that, right?

-Right, so part of that is looking at is it a time thing or is it a size thing?

-Right.

-And so if they're a certain size, can they reproduce more quickly?

That's something that we're looking at in conjunction with our headstart program.

-I'm ready to get started and catch some turtles.

-Me, too.

Let's go.

-I see one.

There's one.

So how old are these turtles?

-2 1/2 years old.

-Oh, my gosh!

They really have grown quickly, haven't they?

-Oh, yeah.

-That's three already.

-That's three.

♪♪ -Erin, I notice -- Look at the little fish in here.

So these are -- -So these are gobies.

-Wow.

-These come in through our saltwater intake when we fill the pond with water, so this is great.

I also see some shrimp in here.

-Yeah, some grass shrimp.

-This is great natural food sources for these girls.

-Oh, wow.

Oh, my gosh!

[ Laughter ] -There's two more.

-It looks like Andrew has done this before.

-A few times.

-Oh, boy, that's a pretty one, isn't it?

-She's beautiful.

-What beautiful orange around the marginals there!

Erin, I noticed some of these are really different-looking.

I mean, they don't all look the same.

That's for sure.

-They are.

-In fact, one of these...

This one is really different-looking.

-Yeah, you can see how this one is much darker, and even the plastron, which is the bottom shell, this one is much brighter in color, and what we see is within a clutch of eggs, all of the brothers and sisters will have very similar coloration, but you can see that in different nests you can get really, really different color variations and patterns.

-You know, it's kind of interesting because you'd think this would blend in much better with the bluff mud, and this wouldn't as much, but I guess Spartina grass and other things, this is a good pattern to help it blend in, good cryptic coloration.

-Right, right.

-This one looks like it's wearing lipstick or something, kind of.

-[ Chuckles ] It does.

The other cool thing about these turtles is that they actually see in a different light spectrum than we do.

They can see in the UV light spectrum, so something that might look very colorful or very drab to us can look very different to them, so it might be enticing when they are looking for mates.

-Could be, could be.

-So, you know, sometimes we find them buried in the mud.

They don't even come into the water, so it may not be a bad idea to go check around the mud, yeah.

-Let's look around over here and see if we can find them.

I'm following you guys.

I know you know where to look.

♪♪ -Oh, cool.

Look at this one.

-Boy, that's a pretty turtle.

-Pretty.

-Really light.

-Very light, almost greenish.

-So you can already see -- so this is a female.

You can already see that the head is getting much wider.

In fact, it's already bigger... -Exactly.

-...than an adult male would be, isn't it?

-Yeah, she's about the maximum size that an adult male would ever reach, and their heads are tremendous.

-I have noticed that, and they eat slightly different things, right?

They can eat bigger crabs and snails and things like that.

-They do, absolutely.

They have really powerful crushing jaws.

-Just noticed how much muck I have on my hands.

This is my kind of stuff.

♪♪ Guys, I see one more right over against the liner right here.

I think this one hit liner and couldn't go any deeper.

Boy, this is some thick mud, too.

It kind of makes a squishing noise when you pull it out.

♪♪ It's open.

-Yeah.

-All right.

Here we go.

I got terrapins.

-Oh, I think I just... -I thought I saw a head in there.

-You feel something?

-Yeah.

I thought I saw something moving.

Let's see.

Oh!

-Anybody see anything?

-Oh.

-Oh, awesome.

-Here she is.

Got one here.

Here, if you want to hold that, I'll see if there are any more in here.

-Sure.

-Boy, that is a pretty turtle.

-She's beautiful.

-I think that's it, isn't it?

-Yeah, looks like the only one in there.

-Boy, that is a nice one.

-She's got beautiful markings.

-It almost has a little goatee or something, doesn't it?

-Oh.

I think I just stepped on one.

-Here, you want me to take this one?

-I feel something -- Sure, thanks.

-All right.

-Hey!

-Boy, big difference in size between these two.

-Yes, yep, they're the same age.

-Here is one more right here.

It's another really light one.

♪♪ Well, I think that's everybody.

-All right.

Let's go work these guys up.

-Great.

♪♪ -So before we work this up, you brought some stuff for us to see, huh?

-I did.

I have some different age and year classes of terrapins just to give you an idea of the differences in sizes.

So there are a bunch in here, but these are all from this year.

So these hatched in July, so they're, you know, 5 months old.

-So this is just a few months old?

-Just a few months old.

-And then these are how old?

-2 1/2.

So this is about half a year, 2 1/2, and then we actually... -That's rapid growth.

-It is.

-...have 1 1/2-year-olds, so the in-between size.

So this is -- -Wow.

Boy, look at the difference in color.

That's really a good contrast, isn't it?

-So this is the size that you'll get after, you know, about one year from now and then 2 years after that, so we do see quite a bit of growth over the course of just a couple years.

-And the other important thing to remember is that these are captively raised turtles, so the reason that they're growing so quickly is because they've never experienced a winter.

They've never had to look very hard for food, and they've never had to hide from predators.

-They've been babied.

-Yeah.

[ Chuckles ] -So, guys, what's going to happen to all these turtles?

-Well, eventually, Tony, all of these turtles will be released, and what we're doing is we're investigating when the best time to release them is, so we've already released hatchlings.

We've released year-old turtles, and depending on their behavior, there may actually be a better strategy.

We may see more of these turtles grow to adulthood depending on if we release hatchling-size or year-old-size turtles.

This is BE11037.

-Yeah, so I've used this technology with snakes and checked that little bar code.

It's about the size of a grain of rice.

-Yep.

-And that tells you who it is.

-Okay, carapace length is 144.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -So, Erin, terrapins really are important to the environment, aren't they?

-They really are.

Well, I mentioned earlier that it's the only species of turtle that spends its entire life in the estuary, and once they reach adult size, they really have no natural predators.

And so they're a very important part of the estuarian food chain.

-Well, I'll tell you, I have a real soft spot for terrapins.

I just love them, and I really appreciate the work that you guys are doing, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, to protect these turtles, and mostly, I appreciate you letting me come out and work with you today.

-Well, it was great to have you.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Al Segars and I are here in the low country, and we're looking at oystercatchers.

And I'll tell you what -- these are good-looking birds.

-Oh, they're amazing, Tony.

We're looking at a roost or basically a rest stop.

So we're at high tide now, and these birds can't feed.

All their food is underwater, so basically, they're just taking a break.

They're protected.

They're sitting there just kind of waiting for that tide to go out, and they'll start another feeding cycle.

-Now, they're tucked in there with -- I've seen some dunlin and some marbled godwits maybe.

-Marbled godwits, the black-belly plovers, really a nice what we call mixed flock of shore birds.

Oystercatchers are probably there in dominance, and you can tell them.

They're the big black and white birds, look like they're smoking kind of an orange cigar, great big orange bill, so really handsome birds.

We think there are probably about 10,000 in the Eastern US, and about a third of that whole 10,000 winters here in South Carolina, so really important wintering site for these birds.

-So this is an especially important habitat here in the low country.

-Oh, really important habitat.

So we're seeing something special today.

-Okay, so tell me a little bit about some of the research that DNR is doing with these birds.

-DNR has been banding birds, these oystercatchers, since about 2001, and really there's a banding program all up and down the East Coast trying to actually ID the life history of where these birds are spending their time.

We looked at this particular flock last year, and there were 17 banded birds from six different states right here in this one flock, so you use these plastic colored bands.

The color is unique to each state, and then by the unique number on the band, you can ID that unique bird, so it really lets us learn about the bird, where it's been, where it's spending its time.

-So Al, oystercatcher numbers -- they're declining for sure, right?

-Yeah, like all shore birds, they seem to be in decline, and a lot of it is a habitat issue, Tony.

Oystercatchers in particular like to nest on the beach.

They have this nice, open vista.

They can see predators, but probably only about 20% of them nest on the beach now in South Carolina, and it's because us humans have pretty much taken over their beaches, their natural habitat, so now most of the nesting occurs on what are called shell rakes.

That's when you're out in your boat and you see this old dead pile of white shell along the edge of the creek.

They utilize those for nesting, which is not nearly as good as an open beach because if you get a great, big tide, the nest overwashes.

It washes the eggs away, and the bird will try to nest again but nest again on the same spot.

And so often, there's a lot of nest failure.

They're prone to predation.

They don't have the same protection there right at the edge of the marsh from raccoons, from minks, that they would, again, on open beach.

-And of course, I imagine some birds, eagles and stuff, are predators of oystercatchers, too.

-Oh, yeah, yeah, and they know crows will eat the eggs.

Gulls will eat the eggs and chicks.

-So they've got enough to worry about without having to worry about boat wakes and high tides.

-They're having a lot of challenges, and what we can do to protect them is in these areas we know they're nesting, if it's on a shell rake, certainly slow your boat down.

Don't approach them.

Don't scare the adult birds off the nest, and on beaches in particular, don't let your dogs run if there are oystercatchers around or any shore bird around.

Dogs are going to flush them.

Predators eat the eggs.

Eggs overheat.

The chicks starve.

All kind of bad things happen.

So we have not saved a whole lot of habitat for these guys, and what we have left we need to try to protect for them.

-I can hear these guys kind of talking away behind us.

-Yeah, they're chattering away.

We got kind of a mixed flock vocalizing, and oystercatcher is my favorite, though.

He has that very distinct whistle you'll pick up on.

-You know, they're packed in there pretty tight, so I imagine there's a couple little disagreements.

-They're good friends by now, but real estate is important.

So, they're amazing, and what they have to do to make a living just makes you just more and more impressed as you study these animals.

-And I'll tell you what, if you have not seen an oystercatcher and you live in the low country, you're missing out, aren't you?

-Oh, man, he's the ambassador of shore birds.

He's great.

-Well, Al, I really appreciate what you guys are doing to try and take care of these birds.

-Well, our biologists are working up and down the coast, Tony, trying to protect the habitat, learn more about these birds.

♪♪ -We recently experienced a really impressive hurricane here in the low country, and the damage to some of our nature preserves is really evident.

Now, landscape ecologist Karl Ohlandt with Spring Island has agreed to join us today to talk a little bit about some of the damage to the trees and the forest.

Karl, welcome.

-Thank you.

Wow, it's a pleasure to be here, Tony.

Thank you.

-So this was quite a storm, wasn't it?

-It was.

It was a pretty powerful storm in some areas that hadn't had a storm in a number of years, but it's interesting the effect that it had and what trees came down and where.

The degree of strength of this storm seemed to be in the wetness of the soil and then the wind that came after that.

We didn't have so much trees breaking off as we had trees uprooting like the one behind us here.

-Exactly.

This is impressive, isn't it?

The whole -- -The whole entire root ball came down.

I mean, this is also a good example of the species of tree.

We had a lot of laurel oaks and water oaks that flipped up just like this one, roots up in the air, and those particular trees live to a certain age and start developing cavities inside the trunk and also root decay, so they're not as strong.

The ground gets wet.

The wind blows.

Over they come.

-Over they go, and boy, do they push up a lot of stuff in the process.

-Absolutely, push up a lot of stuff and create a whole new habitat.

-Well, and that's one of the things that really interests me.

So we're in this little gap of sunlight, so this is true gap succession, isn't it?

-Absolutely, absolutely.

This, prior to this tree coming down, was a very shaded spot in the forest, and we've got a lot of vegetation around us here, young trees primarily, that were waiting for an opportunity.

-Now they got it.

-And now they have it.

They see the sun.

They are ready to shoot up and take their place in the canopy as time goes on, so it's a bit of a disaster.

It was a storm, but it was a natural disaster.

And these are things that need to happen for the forest to continue to succeed.

-Now obviously, this is one thing in the middle of the forest, but in a residential situation, it's a completely different story, isn't it?

-Whereas in a natural forest, we've got all this vegetation below, all these young trees waiting for the opportunity to grow in the newly created sunlight and gap in the forest, in a residential setting, more times than not, you have nothing but mature trees with no young trees below to take their place, so we sort of have to take an active approach in replanting and recreating what nature would've had in a forest setting by planting young trees to take the place of those that fell.

-So, Karl, this is kind of a mixed hardwood habitat, right?

-Mixed hardwoods.

-Okay, well, let's go look at another habitat or two and just see how they fared.

-Sounds good.

♪♪ ♪♪ -So, Karl, this area looks like it fared pretty well, doesn't it?

-It did, very well.

I mean, you almost can't tell there had been a storm here.

Very different habitat.

-And it's managed differently, right?

-It is.

Now, this is primarily pines, loblolly slash pine.

We manage it with fire.

We've done some timbering out here.

Bottom line is, the trees that are here are very healthy.

There's a lot less competition.

They're stronger.

Root is stronger.

Trunks are stronger, much better situation as far as withstanding a storm here.

-Now obviously, if the winds had been strong enough, even stronger than they were, there's the potential for these things to break off.

-Absolutely, in a stronger hurricane with higher winds, these would likely have snapped off, and you'd see a lot of pines snapped here and there, but the management we use here has made them as strong as they can be.

I mean, there was even water flooding this entire area during the storm, but the trees withstood it.

-Looks like it held up well.

-Absolutely.

-And I'll tell you, it is beautiful.

This is one of my favorite spots on the island.

-And mine, too, you know?

And the diversity in the ground layer here and the habitat for wildlife, I mean, the management we perform here makes for healthy trees, but also a healthy habitat for wildlife.

-Yeah, it's good for insects.

It's good for small mammals and snakes, which I love.

-Absolutely.

-Good habitat.

-It is.

-Karl, one of the trees that I want to look at is live oaks because that's kind of the signature tree of the low country.

So is there a spot we could go check those out?

-I think I can find a good spot.

-All right.

Let's go.

-All right.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Wow, now this is a tree, huh?

-It is.

This is the signature tree of the low country.

A tree like this has a story to tell.

It's been around awhile.

It's got a good shape for withstanding storms.

You know, it's got a very broad trunk to it, wide, arching branches, and the roots go far beyond where we're standing.

So it's got a strong foundation to hold it up there in a storm.

-So if you had to guess, how old would you say this tree is?

-We're talking hundreds.

I mean, I would be speculating, but, you know, 400 or 500 years, it could be.

I like to think about the life of these live oaks as they grow for 100 years, live for 100 years, and die for 100 years or more, but basically, they've got a much longer life span than most of the trees we have here.

-That's a really neat way of looking at it because even when the tree starts to die, it provides habitat and beauty for a long time.

-In fact, speaking of the life cycle of these trees, let me show you something pretty interesting.

-Let's go check it out.

-So, Tony, I just had to show you this.

-Well, obviously, this one is in a later stage.

-This one is on the dying 100 years, but you can see it's been there awhile, and it's just still hard as a rock, roots still up in the air, as it was blown over in a storm, and then here's the future.

This is growing for 100 years.

This is one we planted to replace this one.

This is the new tree taking the place of the old in the light, creating a new habitat out of it and still wildlife still using what's decaying on the ground.

-Well, Karl, thank you for joining us today.

That was awesome.

-Oh, you're welcome.

I enjoyed it very much.

-I've got a lot of questions about what animals do during a storm like this, and I think in most cases, they can go in holes underground.

They can go inside a hollow tree.

They have places where they can avoid rain and extreme temperatures, so I think most of them do pretty well.

But I thought it'd be kind of fun to look around and just see what we can find here after the hurricane.

This is actually one of my study sites, so I have a pretty good idea of what lives here.

So one of the things I'm doing is sampling terrestrial vertebrates, things like small mammals and snakes and lizards and things like that, and that's why I have these cover boards out.

And let's flip a couple of these and see if we can turn up something.

A lot of ants.

♪♪ ♪♪ And so here's a pretty common snake.

Boy, he just slung musk around a little bit.

That's -- I'm not going to smell real good, but this is a black racer and a really common species here.

And you can see the musk on my hands.

Ugh.

Anyway, black racers are really common here, but I don't know if you noticed, but there's a nice hole under this piece of tin.

So I'm sure what this guy did during he storm is just go underground, and I'm really surprised I haven't been bitten yet.

But I might rather be bitten than musked, actually, if I had a choice.

Let's let this guy go.

♪♪ Look at this beautiful snake.

Boy, this one's -- Oh, there's two of them!

Look at this!

So two snakes, musk -- My god.

Boy, I'll tell you what, that's kind of neat, so two different garter snakes.

One looks like either a juvenile, and then one is -- I don't know if you can see the amount of musk that's coming off of these guys, but I'm trying to not get splashed in the face by this stuff, really, really kind of a pungent thing.

Garter snakes are nonvenomous, but they do bite.

And there's a great hole right here in this stump, so I'm sure there's lots of possibilities to escape.

So this -- Sorry, I'm kind of overcome by musk, but this musk is kind of a foul-smelling material that's used to repel predators, and I guess in this case, I'm kind of a predator.

So it looks like the snakes are doing okay.

You know, in reality, this is a pretty big storm, but the habitats and the plants and animals in them are going to do just fine.

But let's put these guys down and go see what else we can see.

♪♪ ♪♪ So here's a turtle, a slider turtle, looks like a male, and I can tell by the tail and how dark it is.

And so this little guy is probably trying to find -- You know, there's a lot of new water around, so it's probably headed to a new pond.

Of course, in a storm like we just had, a slider turtle can just sit underwater.

Looks like it's doing fine, though.

♪♪ ♪♪ The low country is a very special place with a wide diversity of living things.

It takes dedicated conservationists, researchers, and education professionals to conserve our natural resources.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪