Hilton Head’s Big Secret: That Which Lies Beneath the Surface

If you know me, you know I am not a “tell-all”---but I do want to introduce you to the “who’s who” of Hilton Head.
Hilton Head’s Friendliest Resident: The Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin.  These guys are intelligent, charming and playful. Easily identified by their short, stubby beak and gray upper body (it’s pale or pink underneath), they are typically 6 – 12 feet long and weight anywhere from 300 – 1400 pounds. Their curved mouths give the appearance of a permanent smile---but don’t get too close, they have 80 – 100 cone-shaped teeth which they use to trap their prey and then swallow it whole!

Dolphins are not involuntary breathers (as we humans are), so they must consciously come to the surface to breathe air. This means they can never fully sleep since one side of their brain must always be active so they can remember to breathe. They have little to no sense of smell but they have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes, located at the sides of their heads, can move independently of each other and they have a nearly 360-degree field of vision. They use echolocation to determine the shape, size, speed and distance of an object. Dolphins also “fish whack”, which means they knock fish out of water with their tails and eat them when they’re flopping on the shore! Each dolphin has a signature whistle used to identify itself, they swim in groups called pods and they LOVE to play!

Hilton Head’s Resident with the Worst Reputation: The Shark.  Did you know Port Royal Sound has the largest concentration of sharks on the East Coast? Our waterscape is largely composed of a series of sea islands and expansive salt marshes and contains tidal rivers and creeks---the perfect habitat for sharks (and manta rays, migrating manatees and right whales)!

Port Royal Sound is the deepest natural channel on the East Coast and is home to a number of shark species including hammerhead, blacknose, sharpnose, spinner, bonnethead, blacktip, lemon, and tiger. Lemon and tiger sharks often cruise in just a few feet of water, while the bonnethead cruises in less than a foot of water, dorsal fin exposed, feeging on crabs along the flats. They are very powerful and make much commotion as they thrash about in the shallow water. Blacktips, also known as apex predators, have a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, while tiger sharks in the sound will swim more than 60 miles out into the ocean and back in one day.

Hilton Head’s Most Misunderstood Resident: The Alligator.  Did you know alligators can “speed burst” at 32 mph on land? Of course, this speed can be maintained for only a short distance---their legs are short and they have to drag those immense tails, but when one is all torqued-up, they are fast enough to grab most anything. Their sustained swim speed is about 20 mph as they bend their back legs, streamline their bodies and let their tails do the propelling. The most surprising fact of all, though, is that alligators can climb trees! It is a surprisingly common behavior as their strong claws and powerful tails help them to throw themselves upward. More common in areas where there is little land on which to bask in the sun (so a limb has to do), there have been no reports of tree-climbers on the Island.

Hilton Head Island is blessed with an abundance of wildlife---and wild things. Learn about them, protect them and, most of all, enjoy them!