>> [ Laughing ] 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.
Species survival can be summed up in three major categories.
Animals need to protect themselves, they have to find food, and most importantly, they have to find a mate.
Certain animals have some really neat techniques for attracting members of the opposite sex.
Let's look at a few of these animals and look at how they find a mate and reproduce.
What a beautiful day in the LowCountry, and you can tell that this habitat we're in has recently been burned.
In fact, it was part of a prescribed burn.
This trunk, you can see, is kind of charred up about this high.
But this pine tree's fine.
In fact, these woods are fine.
And the idea is to burn off a lot of the ground cover.
And it opens up quite a bit for warm season grasses and lots of different types of wildlife.
But I'll tell you what I love about prescribed burns -- it gives you a great opportunity to get out and look for snakes.
And since a lot of the ground cover is gone, you can see a lot more snakes this way.
So I thought what we'd do is get out, look around a little bit, see what we can find.
All right, this is what I was hoping to find -- a beautiful corn snake.
And this one is right next to a stump hole.
And that's where you find them this time of year.
This is about as bright as they get.
And corn snakes in the LowCountry are just absolutely gorgeous.
And I'll bet you this is a male.
I'm going to look at the tail real quick and see.
And sure enough, it is.
Very long tail, and you can see it's wide right at the base right here.
Females would have a shorter tail, and it would taper much more rapidly.
I'll bet you anything this guy spent the winter in this stump hole.
And this is really a great opportunity for thermoregulation.
This guy can get down in the hole, down underground when it gets really cold.
And he can even come up on warm spring days and get warmed up a little bit.
Also, he can come up early in the spring like today, and this allows him to be first up in case there are any females around.
So if there's a female corn snake in the area, this guy's going to know it because when she crawls, she's going to leave pheromonal signals -- chemical signals.
And he can use his tongue and pick up little tiny particles and tell that she's been there.
He uses what's called a Jacobson's organ, so his tongue goes out and touches the substrate and picks stuff up out of the air, and that tells him if a female's been nearby.
If he finds a female, he'll mate with her.
And these guys have internal fertilization, so they mate like a lot of other animals do.
And about 40 to 50 days after mating, she'll lay eggs.
And she usually lays these eggs in an abandoned rodent burrow underground or sometimes in a rotten log.
Now after about two months or a little more, these eggs will hatch into baby corn snakes.
Baby corn snakes are about eight inches long, and they're very boldly patterned, very pretty, but they don't have those brilliant orange colors that the adults have.
And those little guys, of course, are eaten by all sorts of things -- birds can eat them, other snakes can eat them.
So it's a pretty tough road ahead for them.
But if they survive, they'll grow up to lay eggs themselves.
Bluebirds are one of the most recognizable of all bird species.
And it's kind of interesting because we all think of bluebirds as being blue.
In reality, if you were to take bluebird feathers and grind them up into particles, those particles wouldn't be blue.
It's more about the way the light bounces off the feathers that gives them that blue hue.
Bluebirds are members of the thrush family, so they're really related to robins.
But I'll tell you what -- every time I see a bluebird, I'm impressed by it.
They have beautiful color, and it's just neat to have them around.
Very early in the spring, a male bluebird will stake out his territory, and he'll look for a good nesting cavity in the form of a hole in a fence post, a hole in a rotten tree, or even a manmade bluebird box, and he'll try and attract a mate into that territory by doing a variety of wing-flaps and gesturing that will entice her to be his mate.
Once the pair is bonded, they start to build a nest together.
And they'll collect straw and grasses and things like that and they'll line the inside of the cavity with that.
Bluebirds like open habitats.
They love fields like this.
And we've got a whole bunch of manmade boxes around here, a bunch of bluebird boxes.
Let's check some of these and see if there's anything in them.
Here's one of these boxes to check.
Let's see if we can find a bluebird.
Ha!
Wow!
That was not a bluebird.
That was a chickadee.
Yep, and sure enough, if you look at this nesting material, you can hear a chickadee is just calling away in the background.
Obviously, irritated at us for getting into its nest.
You can tell by all these mosses and lichens and things instead of straw.
And sure enough, not only is it a chickadee nest, but there's a bunch of little babies in it.
Looks like one egg and then several little babies.
And I'm going to be real, real careful with these 'cause I don't want to disrupt the nest.
But let me close this back up.
And we don't want to... we don't want to harass it too much, so let's go see if we can find a bluebird.
Let's check another box.
Now, this one looks... looks pretty good.
There's nesting material in here.
And sure enough, there are three eggs, bluebird eggs, and they're a real pretty blue color.
So females will lay four to six eggs, and it's not like they lay them all at once.
I mean, they lay them, and then a couple days later, they may lay another one.
And then, eventually, they have the full clutch.
Once they have the full clutch, then they will start to incubate them.
And it's going to take them probably 12 to 14 days to incubate, and then the little guys are going to hatch out.
Now, these young are going to fledge in about three weeks.
But that makes sense actually.
They're pretty vulnerable in this nest to snakes and other predators.
So the idea is get the babies out -- and they won't all stay together.
So they'll fledge, they'll kind of move out in the surrounding woods.
But the work is still not over for the parents.
They still have to help take care of those young.
They'll collect insects and feed them, and they'll actually go to them where they're living in the surrounding forest to feed them.
So a pair may have a second clutch or even a third clutch if conditions warrant it.
It's really kind of cool how nature regulates itself.
So if conditions aren't right, there aren't sufficient bugs or the habitat's not sufficient for them, then they won't have another clutch.
One of the things we can do is we can create more of these manmade nesting boxes.
I mean, boxes like this work great, because there's a limited number of boxes in nature.
And so bluebirds will definitely take advantage of this.
It's warmed up considerably, and look at this grove of coral bean.
And this is a beautiful plant.
And coral bean, this time of year, has these beautiful tubular flowers.
In the fall or late summer, this thing will develop these little coral beans -- bright red seeds.
Provides beautiful color in the spring and then also late in the summer.
There is a lot of commotion back here.
This is one of the rookeries on Spring Island.
And this one is completely surrounded by water, so it's a great place for these birds to nest.
Now, it's surrounded by water, so a lot of predators just can't get to them.
Good example would be raccoons.
If a raccoon tries to cross this body of water, he's probably going to be eaten by an alligator.
And there are a lot of alligators waiting here, because what they're hoping is that a chick or an egg or something's going to fall out of the nest that they can eat.
It's kind of interesting.
So even though alligators are predators of these birds, they may well control the raccoons, which might be even more dangerous as predators.
The most common bird over here is the great egret.
And great egrets are great big birds.
And they're nesting out on the end of these limbs.
After a pair pair-bonds, or decides that they're going to be mates, they'll build a nest, they work on it together, and then the female will start to lay eggs.
Now, it will take her a little while to lay all her eggs, but the eggs begin to incubate right away.
In fact, the male and female take turns incubating the eggs.
And so the chicks develop at different speeds.
So there may be small chicks in the nest at the same time that there are much bigger chicks in the nest.
This is quite different from songbirds because songbirds will lay all their eggs individually, but they wait until all the eggs are laid before they start to incubate them.
Not the case with egrets.
Probably the reason for that is it's hard to feed that many big birds at once.
So as the birds get bigger, they require more food.
And, therefore, they require more work from the parents.
You notice these egrets have absolutely beautiful feathers this time of year, and that's because they're in breeding condition.
And they have two things -- one is these beautiful feathers, but they also have -- they look like they're wearing sort of dark green eye shadow.
And if you look underneath the eyes, they have these beautiful green eyes.
Also, the feathers are all fluffed up and spread out.
In fact, the Audubon Society was started because of this bird.
In the 1870s and 1880s, egrets were hunted almost to extinction because they were collected for these long feathers which were used to adorn ladies' hats of that era.
A lot of these birds eat fish, but they're generalists.
They'll eat frogs and even small snakes and things.
And, of course, they're catching those, and they're bringing them back to feed the young.
The young are fed according to how big they are, and the big birds are always fed first.
And the reason for that is big birds require more food.
Even though these birds are very well protected in this rookery, there are still some predators that can get at them.
So I'm going to walk over here and show you guys something I saw just a few minutes ago -- the scene of a crime, if you will.
[ Chuckles ] Look at all the feathers on the ground here.
And it looks like it was probably an egret that got killed and eaten here.
And the most likely suspect is Probably a great horned owl.
And great horned owls are known for eating big birds like egrets.
And this one's probably roosting in these trees, and at night, flying over it and catching and killing an egret and eating it.
But you know what?
Great horned owls have to make a living, too, and this one just happens to be feeding on egrets.
Okay, this is a neat little plant.
This is one called Cnidscolus Stimulosus, or "tread-softly."
And I'm not going to touch this one because this plant actually has some hairs on it, some stinging hairs.
It's kind of like a nettle.
In fact, one of the other common names for it is spurge nettle.
And if you touch this, it really irritates your fingers.
But it's got a beautiful little white flower -- real pretty.
We're on our way to a shoot, and I just saw something in the road back here, so I want to run back and show you guys what it is.
Right here.
I'm going to try and head this guy off.
He was actually kind of running across the road a second ago.
But now he sees us, so he's going to stop.
And I keep saying "he" because I'll bet you this is a male box turtle.
Males typically have reddish eyes, a lot of color on the head, and I'll bet you if we flip him over -- yep, sure enough, this guy has a scooped-out plastron.
The plastron is the lower part of the shell, the carapace is the top.
But this plastron is scooped out because it facilitates mating.
So males definitely have that little bowl-shaped plastron or lower part.
Notice reddish eyes.
Some of them have bright red eyes.
But this guy's got all this beautiful coloration on the head.
And this guy's crossing the road.
He's headed this way.
So it could be he's out looking for a female this time of year.
Early in the spring like this, box turtles are looking for mates.
When he finds a female, they'll mate, and then the female will lay eggs.
She'll lay four or five eggs.
She digs a hole in the ground with her back feet, deposits the eggs into that hole, and then they incubate for two and a half months, something like that, before they hatch.
When a female turtle lays her eggs, they're still in great danger because a lot of predators will dig up turtle nests.
Raccoons, skunks -- all sorts of things will dig them up and eat the eggs.
Of course, eggs are very nutritious, and they taste good to a lot of animals.
So even though they're dug in the ground, and the female does her best to disguise the nest, they sometimes are eaten by predators.
If the eggs do get a chance to hatch, what they typically do is hatch in the nest, and then they remain there till the following spring.
So they just sit in the nest, rely on the embryonic reserves, the yolk sacs that they have, and then in the spring when conditions are better, they can emerge.
Baby box turtles are about that big around and they're very flattened.
They don't have that cool dome shape that a lot of box turtles do.
So they look quite different.
They look more like young water turtles.
Box turtles deal with a lot of predators.
Fortunately, they have this hinge and they have the ability to close up.
So even when a coyote or a bobcat or a natural predator -- or even a dog messes with them, they can usually close up to protect themselves.
This box turtle was headed in that direction, so when we came around him, we gave him a wide berth.
And what we're going to do is release him in that direction.
Keep in mind, this guy's headed somewhere.
So it's very important that I take him back in the direction that he was going.
Now, a lot of people will pick up box turtles, and they'll move them.
They'll take them way down the road and release them.
That's a problem because what you're doing is taking him out of his home range.
And there's a good chance that that box turtle's going to try and come back.
And, of course, if he tries to come back, there's a chance he may be hit by a car.
So we're going to help this guy cross the road and let him go about his business.
A lot of lizards are looking for mates this time of year.
And I've been seeing some lizards hanging around on these fence posts.
And particularly what I'm looking for is a green anole.
And they spend a lot of time here.
It's a pretty good habitat.
You got a great live oak tree behind us and lots of sunshine here for basking.
You may be wondering why I have a fishing rod.
This is actually a lizard noose.
And so what I can do is reach out and put this little slip knot, which is on the end of the fishing rod, over the head of a green anole or other lizard and just kind of pull that thing tight, and it pulls the slip knot around the lizard's head.
And it doesn't hurt the lizard, but it's a good way to snag him.
These things work for even the quickest of lizard species.
So I thought what we'd do is just kind of walk along this fence and see if we can find somebody out basking.
Okay, here's a couple of males.
It looks like they're caught up in some sort of territorial dispute.
One of them is head-bobbing, and they're probably -- one of them probably went into the other one's territory.
And I'm saying they're both males because look how big they are.
Females are noticeably smaller than this.
So I'm going to noose one of these guys.
I can stick this over his head.
And there we go -- and I got him!
And so I'll get this noose off real quick.
Sure enough, it's a male.
And this guy's shedding his skin a little bit.
So he's got a pretty good pinch on my finger.
Pull this noose off.
And so this guy is shedding his skin, and I -- ha ha!
He's kind of a biter, too.
You know, they're not very big lizards, but they pinch pretty hard for their size.
Okay, you see the skin's starting to peel off right here?
And this guy will slough the skin off the entire body -- in fact, the tips of the toes will even shed.
Okay, so it's a male.
I can tell by this dewlap right here.
And this guy was doing push-ups, and he was actually showing that dewlap.
They will blow their bodies up and look as big as possible.
And this is a way to tell other males to back off.
"This is my territory."
And if the argument continues, these guys will actually lock jaws and start to fight.
Sometimes, I mean, I've seen them throw each other off the top of trees or off fence posts and all sorts of things.
It's actually quite spectacular.
So this male -- his territory, and maybe it's the other guy's territory, but it may be, you know, as big as 30 or 40 feet across.
This guy has a tree right next to the fence here, and he may use that as his territory.
If any other males show up, he's going to run them off.
He may have four or five or more females that are in the same area, and he will try and keep other males and any other anoles that aren't females out of his territory.
Now, these guys change color.
It probably has less to do with matching the background and a lot more to do with mood and temperature.
A lot of times, they'll be on a brown tree trunk, and if they're warm and they're feeling good, they're going to be a bright green color.
If they get stressed or get really cold, they tend to turn kind of brown.
I'm going to let this little guy go.
I'll bet you anything we can find a female if we look, because if there's a male around and this is their territory, they're probably some females here, too.
Okay, I see a female on the fence post here.
And I'm going to see if I can sneak up on her.
And she is just fine.
And, yep, it's a little female.
And I can tell because there's a dewlap, but it's not very pink and it's not very big.
And also by size, too.
So she will probably lay several clutches of eggs throughout the year, and as I said, just one or two at a time.
She's very dark, and she's much cooler than those males were.
And it's probably since she's cooler, she's a much darker color.
Okay, well, let's let her go.
And I'll just put her back where we caught her.
You know, there's another species of lizard that ought to be looking for mates this time of year.
And one of the best ways to catch lizards is to use a drift fence.
And we have a system of drift fences here, and the plan is to intercept animals as they're moving through the woods.
And so these fences stick a little bit up out of the ground and a little bit below the ground, and then there are pitfall traps or buckets.
So animals can't get over the fence or under it, so they walk along till they fall in the bucket.
So I thought what we'd do is walk along, check some of these buckets, and see what came through.
Now this is exactly what I was hoping to find.
In fact, there are two in here.
And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to get one out at a time.
It's kind of hard to handle both of them at the same time.
And this is a broadhead skink.
And I absolutely love these guys.
Right away, I can tell that it's a male, and I can tell that because look how big the head is.
In fact, the name broadhead skink comes from the fact that the males get this wide head.
And this head is good for a couple things, one, crunching up beetles and things.
But also, especially this time of year, it's very good for fighting with other males.
And I can tell that this male is in breeding condition because of his bright orange head.
So this time of year, his head gets brightly colored, and this is to signal females and also to signal other males that this is his territory and to back off.
Now, broadhead skinks have really impressive muscles in their jaws.
And like I said, this is very good for fighting with rival males.
And skink fights are pretty spectacular.
They're very strong, powerful animals, and they can actually do a fair amount of damage to each other.
And you notice this guy has some scarring on the back of his head, and I'm sure that's from grappling with other males.
You notice this guy has just kind of a basic olivy color to him -- except for that orange head.
But this female looks quite different.
So I'm going to put him back in.
And here is the female.
And she's a lot prettier.
She's got these nice stripes on her.
And she pinches pretty good.
She doesn't have the jaw strength that that big male does, but she's still got pretty strong jaws for her size.
So I'm going to flip her back over.
One of the things I noticed is look how chunky she is.
So she may be full of eggs.
And when she's ready to lay her eggs, she's going to find an area underneath a rotten log or in an area of leaf litter or something like that -- where it stays nice and warm -- and she'll lay 10 or more eggs.
And she'll actually protect those eggs.
She'll stay with them and brood them.
She'll do things like turn them over.
If one of them gets fungus or starts to die off or something, she'll take that and get rid of it and remove it from the clutch.
And if certain predators show up to try and eat those eggs, she's going to protect them, which is pretty impressive.
You know, most reptiles don't protect their young or their eggs.
They just kind of lay the eggs and then take off and they're pretty much on their own.
Not true with skinks.
They're pretty good parents.
Now, when those eggs hatch, they're going to hatch into little tiny skinks about that long.
And those skinks are going to have cobalt blue tails -- just absolutely gorgeous animals.
And young skinks are boldly patterned.
In fact, we have three different types of large skinks around here.
We have the broadhead skink, the southeastern five-lined skink, and then the five-lined skink.
And all three of those species look almost identical as young.
It's not until they get a little bigger that it becomes apparent which of the three species they are.
You know, a lot of people think that skinks are poisonous, and, actually, they are.
They have a toxin, a neurological toxin.
So if a dog or a cat eats a skink, it can make them sick.
But they really pose no danger to humans whatsoever.
And if they bite you, they're completely harmless.
They eat certain species of harmful insects, and it's just kind of neat having them around.
They're beautiful lizards.
So I think what we'll do is grab this male, and we're going to let these guys go on the opposite side of the fence.
I'm sure what happened is the male was probably following the female, and I guess chased her into the fence.
And they ran along and both fell in the same bucket.
Kind of neat.
So we want to make sure we let them go on the opposite side of the bucket.
And we don't want to break them up.
Okay, so let's walk along the fence, see if we can find something else.
Now, here is something really cool.
This is a wolf spider.
And in fact, it's a female wolf spider who has a bunch of babies on her back.
Okay, I'm going to corral her onto the sponge and see if I can pick her up where we can see her.
I have to be a little bit careful because these things do bite.
And I imagine since this one has a lot of babies, she might be even more likely to bite.
so this if very likely a Carolina wolf spider.
It is the South Carolina state spider, which is interesting enough.
But look at the babies on the back of this thing.
So what happens is a female wolf spider will lay an egg sac.
And let's see if we can get her back on the sponge instead of on my hand.
And, of course, it's filled with eggs.
And she'll carry that around under her abdomen.
And she'll drag it around for a long time.
And then once those eggs hatch within that egg sac, the babies run up onto her back.
And they actually cling to these modified hairs which are on the back of the spider's abdomen, and they stay with her.
And then eventually, as they get bigger and bigger and they're about ready to be on their own, they start to look at each other as food.
Spiders are fairly cannibalistic, and so they start eating each other.
And so it becomes apparent that it's time to jump off Mom's back and go make a living as a spider on your own.
And, of course, then they disperse.
But these guys are obviously at the point where they're still relying on Mom for protection.
So I think what we need to do is go ahead and put her back down with her babies and let them carry on about their business.
We've seen some great examples of reproductive strategies of LowCounty animals.
But of all the things that are most important for survival, finding a mate and reproducing are probably most important.
Reproduction ensures survival of the species, not just the individual.
Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."