If you’ve ever been among the 2.5 million visitors to Hilton Head Island every year, you already know the island as the perfect vacation destination. Though only five miles wide, the South Carolina island boasts 12 miles of beautiful beaches along the Atlantic Ocean. Add to that some of the best golf courses in the world, more than 60 miles of bike paths, and enough dining and shopping to fill a lifetime of vacations.
Surrounded by so much excitement and plentiful opportunities for relaxation in the sun, could anything else make a stay on Hilton Head Island more enriching?
Perhaps a lesser known fact about the island is that it is a shining example of environmental conservation. Its protected wetlands teem with wildlife and are havens for endangered species. The bird life is exceptional, with over 300 species alone known to inhabit the small island. And it is a place where residents, businesses, not-profits, and patrons have come together to protect it all—for the benefit of the wildlife, the millions of guests to the island each year, and for future generations.
Where do you begin on a wildlife journey throughout Hilton Head Island?
To begin with, find the best place to park your motor coach. A sweet slice of beautiful Lowcountry is waiting just for you at Hilton Head Island Motorcoach Resort. This 50-acre RV park on the south side of the island features all the amenities you’re accustomed to such as a large pool, heated spa, and exercise room. Take care of your necessities at their luxurious bath house and modern laundry room. Basketball, pickleball, and tennis courts are available for the athlete in your group. And your furry friends are also welcome and well-accommodated with the resort’s dog park and dog wash facilities.
In addition to these great services, the resort provides easy access to the unique ecology of Hilton Head Island. The opportunities for observing animals in their natural surroundings are plentiful.
Along the miles of walking and biking paths at the resort, you’re likely to catch a glimpse of Hilton Head Island’s wide variety of birds. Hundreds of species call the island home, including osprey, sandpipers, pelicans, egrets, and more. Keep an eye to the trees as well as the waterways for both nesting and wading birds: the Belted Kingfisher with his richly colored dark blue plume; the long, elegant wood stork; or the brightly colored orioles and meadowlarks. A lucky few may see a Great Blue Heron wading through the salt marsh or taking flight over the trees.
Hilton Head [Photo/Coastal Discovery Museum]
If you follow the bike path at Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort to the beach, you’ll find yourself along a pristine shoreline that is not only prime for time in the sun, but is also where loggerhead turtles nest every year from May through October. Plan to arrive at the beach early if you want a chance to see the unique flipper tracks made by female loggerhead turtles at night as they make their way up shore and back to the water. The females, who emerge in the spring to lay their eggs on the beach, can reach up to 300 lbs. in weight. Over the nesting period they may create up to six nests with 100 or more eggs in each.
Mother loggerhead turtles are careful to protect their nests from natural predators and curious humans. As explained by the Coastal Discovery Museum, a local non-profit organization, “Nesting typically occurs at night--the female crawls slowly to a dry part of the beach and begins to dig with her rear flippers. Once the cavity has been made, she deposits an average of 120 eggs. Using her flippers, she then covers the hole and throws sand over the nest to disguise it from predators.”
The loggerhead turtle has been named a threatened species, and on Hilton Head Island they are protected through the cooperation of residents, businesses, and local nonprofits. Dangers to the loggerhead nests and hatchlings include human disturbance, natural predators such as birds, and even artificial lighting near the beach.
As explained on the town of Hilton Head Island’s website, the newly hatched turtles use the downward slope of the beach and the reflection of skylight off the ocean to navigate to the waters. If artificial lights shine more brightly than the skylight, baby turtles can become disoriented, head away from the shore, and find themselves in danger from man-made hazards such as swimming pools and cars. To support the hatchlings on their way to the sea, residents and business owners near the beach turn off their interior lights or shade them behind blinds at 10:00 pm during the nesting and hatching season.
The Coastal Discovery Museum is just one of many non-profit organizations that help to protect the loggerhead turtles and other animals on Hilton Head Island. A visit to The Coastal Discovery Museum begins at their Discovery House, where a number of permanent and rotating exhibits are available. The Honey Horn plantation, where the Museum relocated to in 2007, covers 68-acres of land for visitors to explore. Just beyond Discovery House is the beginning of a network of trails that wind past marshes, gardens, horse pastures, live oaks, ancient cedars, and historic structures. The museum and grounds can be explored free of charge to visitors, though donations are welcome. As their website explains, their mission is to “inspire people to care for the Lowcountry,” and helps visitors to “discover connections between air, land, water, and living things for greater environmental awareness.”
Through their adopt-a-turtle program, patrons are assigned a turtle nest and receive regular email updates about that status of their nest throughout the season. "The funds from this program help to educate area students, residents and visitors...on the precious sea turtles of Hilton Head Island,” explains a donor letter from the Museum.
A similar program also managed by the Museum is their adopt-a-dolphin program, where patrons can adopt, name, and keep track of a particular bottlenose dolphin in the region, even receiving email updates from the museum about their dorsal-finned friend.
“We do this program in conjunction with University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) Marine Sensory and Neurobiology Lab,” Vice President of Marketing and Development Robin Swift explains. Their collaboration enables USCB to perform important research about dolphins and other marine animals, as well as their natural habitats. The research they gather is shared directly with adoptive patrons.
In a letter from the Museum to dolphin adopters, Coastal Discovery Museum CEO Rex Garniewicz explains, “Dangers dolphins face include noise and chemical pollution, boat interactions, over fishing, emerging diseases, and climate change. Better understanding these issues through science will help us protect this amazing species and our environment, and you are now part of helping us do this important work.”
In addition to their adopt-a-dolphin program, The Coastal Discovery Museum offers dolphin tours to visitors (for an extra fee). By either kayak or motor boat, visitors can make their way into open water, mostly inlets and streams, and see bottlenose dolphins in their natural surroundings.
The luckiest few are able to witness a technique the dolphins use for feeding called “strand feeding.” Dolphins chase fish toward the shoreline, then trap them by temporarily beaching themselves on mud banks or sandy shore. Once they’ve eaten their fill, they flip themselves back out into the water.
As Swift explains, “Strand feeding is one of the rarest things to see. If it happens and you see it, you are most fortunate.”
The tours also offer visitors a chance to see other fantastic wildlife such as river otters, blue crabs, and plenty of birds.
So whether you want to stay at the resort or venture out to the trails and marshes, you’ll have the chance to experience the beautiful variety of wildlife. And even if you’re only visiting for the season, know that you can take a special part in protecting the incredible outdoors of Hilton Head Island, too.
Destinations, Museum, Open Road, Outdoors, RV Parks, South Carolina, Wildlife