♪♪ -[ Laughs ] You can see -- 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.

♪♪ ♪♪ Fox squirrels come in a variety of patterns and hues, but size alone tells you that this is no run-of-the-mill gray squirrel.

Kate Amspacher is a wildlife biologist who studies fox squirrels right here in the Lowcountry, and she's agreed to let us tag along.

Kate, thanks so much for joining us.

-Thanks for coming out.

-So these are really charismatic little animals for sure, but why do you study them?

-Well, they're a species of conservation concern at this point.

They're not federally listed or protected in any way yet, but their populations are declining throughout their range, so it's a species that we want to get ahead on and make sure we're keeping them around for years to come.

-You know, I've heard these guys called monkey squirrels and cat squirrels and all kinds of things, but this is a native species.

-Right, right.

-So, Kate, tell us a little bit about the studies you're doing here.

-Okay.

Well, my study is a cooperative project between Marshall University, where I'm studying in the biology department, Nemours Wildlife Foundation, and Parris Island and the Marine Corps.

The main part of my study is translocation.

So I am catching squirrels here on Nemours Plantation and a few other plantations here in the Lowcountry and actually moving them to Parris Island to establish a population.

-So there aren't squirrels there, but it is really -- it's good habitat.

-They have gray squirrels there, but they don't have fox squirrels there.

But they're a suitable habitat for the fox squirrels.

-And so there'd be enough to eat and... -Yes.

Yeah.

-So, Kate, tell us a little bit about the natural history of this squirrel.

-They normally live, we think, about 8 to 10 years in the wild.

They have typically one litter a year, about two and a half pups on average, so they live a pretty long time for being such a small rodent, and they don't really have that many babies compared to what we see in some of the other squirrels and mice and rabbits and things like that.

So they have a pretty long life history there, and that is part of the reason why it's such an issue when we start losing them.

It's hard to get them back because they don't reproduce and bounce back very quickly.

They like areas like this, this pine savanna.

-So this is a great habitat, isn't it?

-Yes.

Yes.

-This is what I think of when I think of fox squirrels.

-Right, exactly.

They are specialists in this type of habitat.

They like these nice, open areas, not too many trees.

They spend a lot of time on the ground foraging mushrooms, insects, pine cones, acorns, hickory nuts.

They're not too terribly picky.

It really depends on the season and what's available.

-So, Kate, I see fox squirrels in some areas, but they're not everywhere, are they?

-Right.

So, historically, they would have been in a lot more areas, but as we have more and more human interaction with buildings and roads and things like that, that's really limited some of their habitat availability.

And so this particular subspecies is pretty much just here in the Carolinas along the coast with the long leaf pine ecosystem.

Because they're found in such sparse populations -- not a whole bunch of them in one area -- you don't really have any predators that really specialize on fox squirrels.

Pretty much anything that is going to eat smaller rodents would take a fox squirrel if they get the chance to.

-So this area has obviously been managed.

You can just tell by looking at it.

-Right.

Nemours Wildlife Foundation is really big on controlling their areas with fire, with controlled burns, which is really important in keeping a nice, open understory like this with this grassy cover, as opposed to thick hardwoods that come in and just close everything in, and you ruin this nice, open ecosystem.

-Yeah.

I love these warm season grasses... -Definitely.

-...this savanna look.

-Right.

Right.

Yes.

And fox squirrels love it, too, and so do a lot of other wildlife species.

-Okay.

So the next part is what I'm so excited about.

We're going to catch some fox squirrels, right?

-That's the goal.

-All right.

Well, let's go.

-Let's go.

♪♪ And... -Doesn't look like there's anything in it.

-Yeah.

The door is open here, so we can go ahead and take this lid off, and we can look at how the trap actually works on the inside.

-Okay, cool.

I noticed the delicious pecans in there.

-Yeah.

Yeah, so, we use the pecans because they're pretty specific to squirrels.

That helps keep us away from all the coons and opossums and everything else that might decide to try to get in here.

If we catch a squirrel, the squirrel would come in over here through the door and come back in here, smell the pecans -- want these back here in the back -- and step on this treadle that we have here.

That trips the door.

We've got a little bit of an opening back here with this wire so that they can still, you know, get some fresh air and everything.

It doesn't get too hot in here.

But this really helps keep them from being too afraid from predators and causing extra stress when they're here in these traps.

-All right, well, let's put this one back together, and then we'll go check another one.

-Okay.

♪♪ I think we've got one in here.

-I think you're right.

Oh, it's a good spot.

-Oh, yeah.

Right next to this live oak tree.

-Yeah.

All right.

Let me go get my stuff, and we'll get him out.

-Okay.

-Got everything we need.

-I see the gloves.

Those are important, right?

-Yeah, definitely very important.

These guys have some nice jaw power.

You don't want to get bit.

All right.

So I'm going to open up the door here.

Okay.

So now, let's pick this up and tilt it out and see if we can't get him to run out of here.

Can you see in the back of there?

-Yep.

He's facing me.

-Can you blow on him?

Okay.

-We got him.

I think -- -We've got him.

-Oh, good.

So he's inside the... -Yep.

All right.

Hey, little guy.

Yeah, so definitely a male, pretty old, too.

And can you still hang on to... -I can.

-Okay.

And make sure that it's closed the whole way, and we'll let him go in there.

Okay.

He's in there, and we're going to throw this towel over him just to keep... -Just so he won't get scared.

-...the stress down.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

Well, let's take this guy up to the lab, and we'll get him some anesthesia and get a collar on him.

-Okay.

Great.

-Hi, Al, thanks for doing this.

-How are y'all today?

We got a candidate here?

-We sure do.

-Hey, Al, good to see you again.

-Good to see you, man.

Good to see you.

♪♪ -We're going to get a weight on him.

-Okay.

♪♪ -Okay.

So we're going to go ahead and put this collar right here around his neck.

-You know, it's not like -- If this guy wasn't asleep, you couldn't handle him like this.

-No.

No way.

I mean, look at the tail.

Very impressive... -Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, very nice, bushy tails.

-...long, fluffy tail, and, of course, big rodent teeth, very, very impressive claws.

-Yeah, definitely.

-God.

They're remarkable animals, and they're so big compared to other squirrels.

-Yes.

♪♪ So here we are at Parris Island.

This is where I release all of the squirrels to their new translocated home.

-Now, but you have a couple squirrels that are already... -I do.

-...have collars on them here, right?

-I do.

I do.

Last year, around this time, I was releasing some squirrels out here, and we've still got some out here that are doing their squirrel thing.

-Now, I have done some some radio telemetry with snakes and other things, but how we are gonna find this squirrel?

-Okay, so the collars that we put on the squirrels, like we just put on that one we caught, they emit a particular radio frequency, sort of like a station on your radio that you would dial into to listen to music.

And this receiver here that I have, I can tune into the specific radio signal that that squirrel is giving off, and I have a whole list of all of the signals... -Squirrel channels.

-Yes, squirrel channels.

And so then we can use this antenna here to listen for the signal from that squirrel and follow it and find the squirrel.

-All right.

Well, let's go see if we can find one.

-Okay.

-So you think the squirrel is gonna be up in a tree or on the ground?

Probably in a tree, right?

-There's probably a pretty fair chance that he's in a tree, and you'd be amazed at how easily they blend in, with all of that Spanish moss and resurrection ferns and everything.

They can hide pretty well.

-Such a beautiful habitat.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is good stuff.

-Yep, and with a nice, open bottom layer here, like we were talking about.

Even though it's not that pine savanna that we had discussed, this is still pretty nice habitat.

-So this is good fox squirrel habitat, for sure.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

And these large oaks are gonna produce a lot of acorns.

There's all sorts of fungi that grow in here, and you can see that there are some pines in the periphery, so they've got a lot of options for food, as well.

All right.

I think we're gonna stop right in here, and I'm gonna turn this receiver on and see if we can get an idea of where this squirrel is at.

-I can hear the faintest little beep through that static.

[ Receiver beeping faintly ] -Yeah.

So through the static, you hear a little bit of a beep, and that beep is the signal that the squirrel's collar is giving off.

-There we go.

It's gone.

-But I believe he's in one of these three trees.

Oh, look at this.

I think we found what he's after in these trees up here.

-There's not much left of it.

-No, not much at all.

-And they love pine nuts, don't they?

-Yep.

Yep.

They'll sit up in the tree, and they'll just use their teeth to gnaw off a cone.

And they'll sit in the tree and just rip it apart and just let all of the pine cone pieces fall to the ground.

-Looks like he had a feast here.

-[ Laughing ] Yeah.

[ Static crackling on receiver ] You know, I think that's about as good as we're gonna get here.

He's definitely in one of these couple of trees, but he's doing a pretty good job at hiding from us right now.

-So, a lot of times, they probably do the opposite side of the tree every time.

-Yes.

Yes.

Definitely.

They see us.

He's sitting up there watching us right now and moving his body just so so that we can't see him, and he'll just keep playing that game as we keep walking around in circles.

-That's all right.

We know he's up there, and we know he's doing fine.

-We do.

Yep.

-Well, I guess we ought to see if our other guy is ready to be released.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

Give him a friend.

[ Chuckles ] -Well, I think this guy is ready to go, right?

-Yeah.

Let's take a look at him here.

-Oh, yeah.

-Oh, yeah.

He's waiting.

He's waiting to get out.

-Okay, so, what we're gonna do is just open the cage, and he's gonna run off?

-Yep.

Yep.

We have it pointed towards that tree so that he can go straight to the tree and hopefully find himself some friends and some food and some shelter for the night.

-Okay.

Let's do it.

-All right.

-Here it goes.

-Here we go.

♪♪ -[ Laughs ] There he goes.

-Wow.

-Looks like he's in good shape.

-Yeah, definitely, definitely.

Look, he's over in that tree now.

-Kate, that was awesome.

-This is my favorite part.

It's great.

-Well, thank you so much for letting us join in your research.

-Thanks so much for coming along.

♪♪ -This is Beau Bauer, and he's a wildlife biologist at Nemours Wildlife Foundation.

Beau, this is some incredible place.

-I know.

Isn't it?

It's fascinating out here.

-So how big is Nemours?

-Nemours Plantation is about 9,800 acres.

-Wow.

So almost 10,000 acres.

-And we're situated here on the northern end of Beaufort County along the Combahee River, which we're looking out at right now.

-So this is former rice impoundments, right?

-Correct.

Correct.

We have hundreds of acres of old rice impoundments that we actively manage, not just for water fowl purposes, but shorebirds use these impoundments, wading bird species.

Of course, we have -- You know, eagles like to hunt out here.

We have alligators out here.

I mean, it provides amazing habitat.

And, you know, not just impoundments, but we have, you know, thousands of acres of uplands, as well, hardwood bottoms, pine savanna.

We have some tupelo swamp on the property.

It's this great matrix of habitat types on this property.

-So how did Nemours get started?

-Well, this property, Nemours Plantation, was owned by Eugène du Pont III.

Mr. du Pont passed away in 1995.

He had it set up in his will to establish a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to overtake ownership of the property and take care of it, and that's how we came about as Nemours Wildlife Foundation.

Aside from just taking care of this beautiful piece of property, we also have a robust research program here for scientific investigations for wildlife and wildlife habitat.

-Beau, I know you work with aquatic invertebrates here, but what other sorts of research projects are going on here?

-Oh, we have a multitude of research projects ongoing right now.

We just wrapped up a four-year study on wild turkey nesting and brood-rearing habitat.

We have graduate students here from Clemson University and Marshall University.

We have the Clemson students working with black-bellied whistling duck movements and a competition of wood duck box use.

The Marshall students are doing fox squirrel translocations and population restorations and eastern diamondback rattlesnake translocations -- really exciting research.

Myself, I'm working on aquatic invertebrates right now in these old rice fields, and we have another Clemson student that's gonna be working on submerged aquatics in these old rice fields, as well.

And my project and his will go hand in hand with starting to develop some biomass estimates of some of the nutritional carrying capacity.

-You're talking about some of the stuff that the water fowl is gonna feed on.

-Exactly.

Especially for invertebrates.

That's an important food source for shorebirds, as well, that use this kind of habitat as migratory stopovers.

We also have long-term monitoring of pine savanna restoration, the avian response and plant community responses to some of the restoration projects we're doing out here, so this -- just a lot going on here, and it's great to be able to do it.

And Nemours Plantation is just a wonderful laboratory to conduct all these investigations on.

♪♪ -So, Beau, you're also working with an endangered species here, right?

-Correct.

Correct.

We just started relocating red-cockaded woodpeckers to this property.

They'd been extirpated from the ACE Basin for quite some time.

Nemours Plantation, a few neighboring plantations, and a DNR property have just now got on board and were able to receive birds from other places around the state and start restoring those populations in the ACE Basin.

-And you're actually putting in those artificial nest cavities, right?

-Yes.

Yes.

We're using artificial nest cavities, and we're bringing in birds, usually from -- They're called salvage birds from Safe Harbor properties, properties that are enrolled in a program that have and endangered species and they're getting ready to develop.

Fish and Wildlife Service will go collect those birds and move them somewhere else.

-Right.

And I know you have some really good habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers.

-We do.

We're really proud of that here.

-Mature pine trees and such.

-Yes.

And we're maintaining that savanna ecosystem with prescribed fire and keeping an open understory and the native warm season grasses that those birds prefer.

♪♪ -Beau, one of my biggest interests is environmental education.

I know you do some of that here.

-Yes, we do.

We do host a few groups every year to come onto the property.

We give tours, talk about conversation, the ACE Basin, land ethic, some of the research projects we have going on here, and these groups range from grade-school kids to, you know, Lowcountry Master Naturalist courses.

But this is not an open-to-the-public property due to the fact that there is research going on.

-Now, Beau, I realize this is a big job, managing this much property.

-It is.

-So how does that work?

-Well, since we're a nonprofit organization, we are run by a board of directors.

They're a great group of people.

They're really involved and enthusiastic of what we're doing out here.

The Foundation itself has a president and CEO, Dr. Ernie Wiggers, and other than that, I'm the staff biologist here, and we have three full-time land managers that take -- -That's a lot of land for that small a staff.

-Yeah.

It is.

It is.

But everybody does a great job here, and you have to love the place, and we do love this place, and it's just -- It's a labor of love.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Today, we're after one of the most beautiful turtle species in the Lowcountry, and we're going to join herpetologists Dirk Stevenson and Houston Chandler to assist them with their research.

Guys, good to see you.

-Hey, Tony.

-So, what's the plan for today?

Obviously, we're in the habitat.

How are we gonna do this?

-So, today, we're gonna look for spotted turtles.

This is the site where we've been monitoring spotted turtles for three years now.

This is the fourth year of our study.

Today, we're gonna go ahead and check some turtle traps, and hopefully, we'll catch some turtles.

-All right.

Well, I'll follow you guys.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Tony, I've got a trap right here.

-Let's see what we got.

Man, it is really slick in here.

Here we go.

-Just sardines.

-Oh, all right.

-So this is an interesting trap, Dirk.

So it's got just two little openings.

This probably excludes a lot of big turtles, doesn't it?

-Yeah, exactly.

These are specially modified to accommodate something the size of an adult spotted turtle but not bigger, so we're not catching large snapping turtles or sliders.

-And the universal bait -- sardines.

-Right, sardines.

-All right.

Well, there's a couple more traps around the corner.

-All right.

After you.

♪♪ Dirk, looks like some beavers have been in here.

-Oh, yeah.

Check it out.

-Tony, there's another trap right here that you can check.

-Well, this is a beaver dam, isn't it?

Looks like they've been... have some ditches here, and -- Man, this is great habitat.

Oh, there we go!

Look at that.

-Yeah.

-Hey.

-So this is what we're after, spotted turtle, huh?

-Yeah, and they're gorgeous.

♪♪ -Looks like a boy.

-So it's a male, right?

-Yeah.

-Scooped-out plastron?

-Right.

-What do you think, Dirk, good-looking?

-Beautiful.

That's an adult male.

-You know, they -- they really are gorgeous, aren't they?

-Oh, this turtle has an interesting history.

Houston can tell you more.

-So do you know this turtle?

-Yeah, we know this turtle.

-So what's his name, or what's his mark?

-This is Igor.

-Yeah.

His name is Igor.

-So you actually -- you actually name your turtles, so it's not like V-K-X.

It's Igor, or... -No.

-See how he's hunched?

He's got -- -Oh, yeah.

He's got kind of an interesting... -Conspicuously hunchbacked and kind of deformed, but he's a very healthy turtle.

-Yeah.

-We've known him for 4 years.

-And this is one of the ones that we radio tracked last year.

-Oh, cool.

-So we spent a lot of time on him.

-So how did you attach the transmitter on this?

-So we attach transmitters and temperature loggers, and we just used waterproof epoxy right on the back.

-And just glued it right on the back of the shell.

-Glued it right on the back of the carapace, and the antenna trailed behind so that it's not likely to get stuck.

And then we put the temperature logger on the other side.

-Yeah.

-Look at the little leeches.

-He's got leeches.

-He's got tiny leeches on him.

-We probably have leeches on us, too.

[ Laughter ] I imagine little leeches.

Hey, so let's talk about just spotted turtles in general.

So, what are some of the perils that these guys face?

-Well, these are -- You know, this is the second-smallest turtle in the whole eastern United States.

Of our 50 turtle species, only the bog turtle is smaller.

And these guys have really taken a pounding and decline due to development, loss of habitat.

They get hit crossing roads.

They've also been overcollected in parts of their range to the profound detriment of some populations.

-And this is primarily for the pet trade, right?

-Right.

-The reality is, we don't need to be collecting them and selling them as pets.

That's for sure.

-Yeah.

-In terms of the spots, very bright, beautiful turtle in your hand, but if you put this guy down in the water with tannins and dappled sunlight, it blends in beautifully, right?

-Yeah.

They're very hard to see when they're in the water, and they're very good at kind of burrowing down right on top of the leaf litter where you can't see them.

-So what have you guys learned from radio tracking these turtles?

-So, over a 9-month period, we've followed about 30 of these turtles around.

We learned that they generally stay in a very small area.

They don't move a lot.

A few turtles occasionally would move long distances, but... -So, like, what's a long distance?

-Occasionally, we got a couple-hundred meter movements, but that was rare.

In general, they tend to hang out in the same place over and over with very short, 5-meter movements.

-So, Dirk, why is the Orianne Society interested in spotted turtles?

-You know, that's a great question.

Well, the spotted turtle is a focal species of our Freshwater Turtle Conservation Initiative, Tony, and at the Orianne Society, again, we're dedicated to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles, and we want to try to help save species like the spotted turtle.

-So, do you guys need to get some information from this one?

-Yeah, we're gonna hold onto him so that we can weigh him before the day is done.

-All right.

Well, let's go try another spot.

-All right.

[ Water sloshing ] ♪♪ -Tony, we've got another trap we haven't checked yet right here.

-All right.

Let's get this one.

So, we still want to wade one up.

We can't pass up a trap.

-Right.

Right.

We set this yesterday and used Houston's special recipe.

-Sardines, right?

-Sardines in oil.

Yeah.

Sure enough.

-All right.

Wow!

Two of them.

-Hey.

That'll work.

-All right.

Let's get these out.

-Yeah.

This is a male that we've captured before.

Oh, look at the spots, Tony.

-Yeah, look how big they are.

-I mean, this is a... -So when these guys hatch out, does the orientation of spots change as they grow?

-Yeah.

When they're...

When they hatch, they have one yellow polka dot per scute, and over time, they develop more spots.

-That's a beaut right there.

-And this is a big spotted turtle.

-So they're both males, right?

-Yep.

-Yep.

-Both scooped-out plastrons.

When do these guys mate?

-They aggregate right now.

-So, I'll bet sometimes if you get a female in the trap, you end up seeing a lot of males?

-Yeah, we'll have three males and one female in a trap.

-I remember I was doing some spotted turtles trapping in the past, and we actually used decoys.

We used little clay models.

-Yeah.

Did that work?

-It did.

It worked quite well.

-Really?

-You know, we also used bait, so it was kind of hard to tell if they were coming to the bait or -- But the clay decoys seemed to work, for sure.

So, will you let these guys go?

-Yep.

I think we're done with them.

-All right.

-Yeah.

Good to see you.

-Okay, guys.

I want to catch one by wading.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-It's about time.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Boy, this is a beautiful one.

Are you -- Wow!

Look at that thing!

-Oh, man!

-That is a gorgeous -- Another male.

-Very cool.

-God, they really -- They really are pretty cryptic, aren't they?

So this is one of those species that could go undetected really easily, couldn't it?

-Definitely.

They have very seasonal activity.

They're more active right now in the spring, and then they don't move very much.

They don't come out during the summer.

They don't come out during the winter, so they're very hard to find, and you have to be there at the right time to find them.

-So these guys are eating invertebrates?

-They're omnivorous.

They eat fruit sometimes, but they're primarily carnivorous.

Houston... -Yeah.

When we were radio tracking, we actually got them eating gambusia on several occasions.

-So it was the mosquitofish?

-Yeah, mosquitofish.

They'd be sitting in the leaf litter, and they'd kind of be poking their head around, and then they'd come out holding a mosquitofish.

-And I've seen a lot of crayfishes, you know, scuttling away.

-Oh, yeah, there's tons of crayfish in here.

There's lots of invertebrates, tadpoles.

There's tons of food for them to eat.

-Okay.

So you want to let this guy go?

-Yeah.

We'll let him go and see if we can go find a female.

-Excellent.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Oh, there's one.

-Hey!

-Is it a male or a female?

-This is a female.

-Oh, yeah.

Look how flat the plastron is.

-So her plastron is very flat.

She's a little chunkier and weightier than the males.

-So what's a typical clutch size in these guys?

-One to three.

-Oh, wow.

-Spotted turtles do not lay many eggs.

-And just one clutch per year?

-Sometimes two, but often, just one.

-Boy, that's not a lot of reproductive output, is it?

-No, it's not.

But they live a long time.

She can be on the landscape for many, many decades -- as old as us, Tony.

-And the hatchlings, what, are about this big around?

-Yeah, like a half-dollar.

-So probably the mortality happens when they're little.

-Right, to the eggs and the youngins, yeah.

-Yep.

Well, guys, this has been absolutely amazing.

This has been wonderful.

-Thank you, Tony.

-I mean, I love spotted turtles, and they're really charismatic little guys, and I so appreciate the research you guys are doing with the Orianne Society to protect spotted turtles and other species in the Southeast.

-Oh, thank you.

We love them.

-And so I guess we need to let this one go.

-Yeah.

We can let her go.

-Thanks again for letting us work with you in your research.

[ Water sloshes ] ♪♪ We are so lucky to live in a part of the world with so many different types of living things, and it's really good that we have conservationists to take care of them.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪