The Breeze Magazine of the Lowcountry JUNE 2020

The Breeze Breeze Music Environment
The Unwelcomed Guest
By Amber Hester Kuehn
I didn’t grow up hunting and have no experience
with shot guns. In my experience, Girls Raised in
the South who had brothers typically lack this skill,
and those that I know who are proficient with a
shot gun had sisters or no siblings at all. I think I
could have been good at it and regret not spending
more time in the woods. Instead, the creeks and
rivers were my stomping grounds -- the buffer
zone where four legged meets fin, the maritime
forest is inhabited with familiar faces from the
boating perspective. Deer lick marsh grass for the
salt, alligators take a salt water bath from time to
time to rid their scales of algae or to migrate to
a new freshwater pond, raccoons eat periwinkle
snails, crabs, and almost anything that they touch.
At night, they all became shiny eyes with vague
outlines.
But somewhere in the midst of those familiar
faces shine eyes of an unwelcomed guest who is
breaching my comfort zone...
A new foe!
The 2013 Hilton Head Island sea turtle nesting
season was almost over when it began. At some
point in the night on August 24, a new predator
had emerged from the 605-acre maritime forest
preserve in Sea Pines. Nest #245 (of 339) with
109 incubating sea turtle eggs had been totally
destroyed. The area, full of canine prints and
thrown sand combined with egg chards, lead
the sea turtle patrol staff to assume that it was a
wayward pet left unattended while the incident
took place. Documented as an unforeseen loss, it
was considered an isolated event.
Two weeks later, we changed our minds. The
attacks began to happen regularly, and despite
adding screens supplied by SCDNR (South Carolina
Department of Natural Resources), the predator
found a way to invade the nest by tunneling under
the screen. Their learning curve was surprisingly
fast. Each time, most of the contents of the nests
within reach were fully consumed. This predator
was hungry and most likely did not eat pedigree
from a bowl! Also, the effort put forth to tunnel
was a bit more ambitious than most dogs would
undertake, so we had to assume that there was at
least one coyote in the area! Our suspicion was
confirmed by experts who studied the footprints
(coyote prints are very similar to that of a dog – just
slightly narrower). At the end of the 2013 season,
nine sea turtle nests were lost to the coyotes. Four
other sea turtle nesting beaches in SC, including
Kiawah, have recently reported the coyote issue
as well.
How did they get here?
When I think of coyotes, I picture desert mountain
ranges and Wild West instead of plantations and
gated communities. Coyotes are not indigenous
(native) to the Lowcountry. Historically, they were
limited to the Midwest and Mexico. After 1700, they
began expanding their
range, and are currently
found throughout the
continental US, Alaska
and most of Canada.
Coyotes first appeared
in South Carolina in 1978
in Oconee County, the
westernmost county
in South Carolina
(“Upstate”), seemingly
far from sea turtle
nesting
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