♪♪ >> MILLS: Oh.

You can -- 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.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ During this pandemic, we have not had the ability to do a lot of the traveling that we typically do with "Coastal Kingdom."

But what we found is there's an awful lot of neat animals that live right in our own neighborhoods.

So we've been able to pick up some great footage and still maintain strict social distancing.

In fact, we even shot some of this stuff on cellphones.

So, let's take a look at life in a Low Country neighborhood, and you might be surprised what lives right down the street.

♪♪ [ Bird chirping ] ♪♪ Guys, I'm right out here in front of the Nature Center, and I see a little armadillo who just disappeared into this bush.

I think we can sneak in.

There's actually a couple of them.

And I know for a fact that there'd be more than two.

Well, it's certainly be four originally.

I don't know how many are left.

But here's one right here.

Look how cute he is.

What happens is one egg cleaves twice, so you get four identical young.

Four complete clones of each other.

Here they come.

Let's see if I can get in.

They're walking right in front of us.

Now, these guys are looking for grubs and all kinds of things, so they're rooting around in the ground, trying to find earthworms and grubs and all that kind of stuff.

You have to be a little careful with armadillos, 'cause technically they can carry Hansen's Disease, or leprosy, but people typically do not get that from armadillos.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ These are youngsters for sure, but they're not absolute babies.

When they first come out of the burrow, they're really pink and smaller than this.

But these guys are not very big.

Now, armadillos were not here historically.

So, probably our populations of armadillos came from out west and were taken to Florida and then moved north from Florida here to South Carolina where we are.

Here comes this little guy right here.

♪♪ We'll back off a little bit, and maybe they'll walk right up to us.

♪♪ Here we go.

So, we're right out in front of the water feature in front of the Nature Center.

Man, this is fun.

[ Chuckles ] You know, armadillos are toothless mammals.

They're edentates.

And so they have teeth, but they're very small, kind of peg-shaped teeth.

Very different from a lot of other animals.

♪♪ Anyway, armadillos.

Man, you rarely get a chance to be this close to them.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ This is fun stuff.

Now, not everybody likes armadillos.

I'm kind of fascinated by them, but... Not everybody likes them.

Like I said.

And if you want to have a nice lawn, an armadillo makes it very, very difficult.

But they do some good things.

They eat fire ants, which is good.

And, you know, they're not so bad.

♪♪ Thought you guys might get a real kick out of this.

So, this is a corn snake that I just caught, I mean, minute ago.

And I put him on the side of the tree because I wanted you guys to see how good of climbers they are.

Now, I'm gonna move in just a little bit closer.

And you notice how the edge of the scales are slightly curved.

And so on a corn snake, they can use those irregular scales to grip rough parts in the bark and go straight up the trunk of a tree.

It's a great trick.

And, of course, this works really well for rat snakes and corn snakes that can get up high where they can catch mice and rats and things like that, and birds and, yes, occasionally bluebirds.

Although, yellow rat snakes are generally the one that gets into trouble for that.

Anyway, corn snake, nonvenomous, of course.

♪♪ Guys, I wanna show you something really cool that's right here in my parents' yard.

You got to check this out.

Okay, if you look closely at this bluebird box, there are some telltale...chew marks right around the opening.

And I'm pretty sure I know what has caused this.

And I saw a head poking out just a minute ago, so what I'm gonna do...is open the side of this... and I think I know what we're gonna see inside.

Let's look right in here, and look at this, guys.

They're baby flying squirrels.

Boy, they are really cute, but really amazing animals.

So, these are one of the true gliding mammals that we have, and so these guys can run up a tree and then jump off.

And they spread that flap of skin that's between their front and back legs and form just a wonderful little parachute of sorts, and they can glide off through the air.

And sometimes they can, you know, glide a couple hundred feet.

♪♪ So, these guys ran out of the box, and I think they're right on the side of the tree right here.

And, of course, these animals are...

I can see them right... Gonna see how close I can get without scaring them.

There he is right on the side of the tree.

There's one of them.

Man, they are amazing animals.

You can that skin that goes between their front and back feet.

So, what they like to do is run up to the top of a tree, and then if they get startled, they can jump off and glide.

But you notice, they're really cryptic.

So, they blend in beautifully with this pine bark on this tree.

♪♪ Notice how big the eyes are.

So, these guys are nocturnal, or they can see in very low light, early morning, late at night.

Now, they eat just about anything.

All kinds of nuts and things like that, plant material.

But they also can eat insects and things like that as well.

So, I'm gonna back off and leave these guys alone.

They are really neat.

♪♪ Okay, so, here's a male green anole that I just caught.

This is a good-looking male.

He's trying to bite me a little bit.

But you notice that throat fan?

It's a little bit hard to see that dewlap, and that tells me that it's a male.

And it's a mature male.

And I just caught this guy on the fence.

This is his territory.

And so if another male shows up, he's gonna run it off.

Also, he may have a harem of six to eight females that live in this area as well.

So, I'm gonna put him back down and let him -- let him head out and go on with his day.

So, guys, this looks like we're about to have a fight between two green anoles.

And this is obviously one of the two lizards' territory.

And the other one does not want to leave and back off.

But notice the head bobbing.

Uh-oh.

Things are about to get ugly.

And one of them needs to back down.

Otherwise, it's gonna turn to anoles' equivalent of fisticuffs.

Here we go.

Fight.

Wow.

It's pretty exciting.

Generally, they don't hurt each other.

But one of them may fall off the fence.

Okay.

Looks like he chased the other guy off.

I get a lot of wildlife calls.

Usually someone has discovered something in their yard or their neighborhood and either want to know what it is or they want it gone.

I love these calls, because sometimes it's something really unusual.

♪♪ There is an alligator that has fallen in this fountain.

And it looks pretty small.

You never know.

There may be some magnification from the water.

But we obviously have to get him out.

I'm sure what happened is he was just wandering around last night after the rain and then fell into this water feature.

So, I'm gonna get in and get him out.

♪♪ Okay, so, this one is about -- I think about three free long.

First thing I'm gonna do is check and see if it's marked, 'cause we have some marked animals on Spring Island.

Boy, they're so strong.

Even at this size, the ability to flex the body's just amazing.

Now, I'm holding him in a way that I won't hurt him at all... [ Alligator grunts ] But you hear those vocalizations?

And so a lot of times that's a residual call from when they're babies and when they call Mom.

[ Alligator grunting ] The bite -- The bite even at this size would be pretty messy for sure.

Alright.

Well, let's take this guy someplace else and let him go.

Alright.

This looks like a great spot.

I'm gonna let this little guy go right here.

♪♪ So, we let him go right around the corner from the house, so there's a chance he'll come back.

But I don't think he wants to fall back into that fountain.

♪♪ Hey, guys.

Here's a bat that I just found in a house.

Now, he looks really fierce here 'cause he feels really threatened, but keep in mind, this is a beneficial animal and it's really not harmful at all.

I know they look dangerous, but they're not a bit.

And the first thing you notice about bats is how small they are.

I mean, people have a tendency to think they're much, much bigger than they actually are.

And I'm gonna put my finger over here to give you guys an idea just how small this guy is.

If we look from the sides, you can see that membranous wing.

Of course, these are terrific fliers.

It's the only true flying mammal.

Bats are the only true flying mammals that we have.

♪♪ Looks like it may nycticeius, which is an evening bat.

♪♪ There, you can see the...

Anyway, bats look fierce, but they're actually really, really important to have around.

A single bat can eat thousands of flying insects in a single night.

Anyway, I put him up so you guys could see him.

But I'm gonna put him over in this bush and leave him alone.

♪♪ Guys, I want to show you something really cool that a friend of mine caught.

Check this out.

So, tell me if you know what this animal is.

I mean, it is really odd-looking, isn't it?

This is actually a raccoon.

It's a blond raccoon.

It's obviously missing some of the black pigment or dark pigment.

It may be hypomelanistic, I'm not absolutely sure.

But I mean, it is a really interesting-looking animal.

And just really, really odd-looking.

'Course, it's like any other raccoon, just lacking some of the pigment.

One of the things to notice is look at the hands on this raccoon.

[ Raccoon growls ] It is growling a little bit, 'cause of course he feels pretty threatened in the cage, in the trap.

But look at the dexterous -- [ Raccoon growls ] Wow.

That was exciting.

[ Chuckles ] I guess I better back up a little bit.

They have just tremendous dexterity in the hands.

And believe me, I'm not putting my hands anywhere near that cage.

He looks cute, but he would bit you for sure.

And, you know, raccoons, you've got to be careful with raccoons.

They're wild animals, and they are rough customers for sure.

But, you know, they have a right to be here just like everything else.

I mean, they are amazing creatures.

They really are.

So, I think we're gonna take this little guy and let him go in a good spot where he doesn't get into any trouble.

♪♪ Guys, I just caught this little beautiful bird in the Kepplers' -- it was actually in their fireplace.

And it looks like a little chimney swift.

It's a beautiful animal, but just while we have it, before I let it go, I thought we'd look at a couple things.

Boy, look at the wings.

These are acrobatic fliers, and they're really good at maneuverability for sure to catch insects and things like that.

Also, the mouth is built for catching insects and kind of opening up very wide and catching flying insects and things like that.

I'm gonna walk right over, and I'm gonna put this little guy right on the edge of this tree.

They're feet, I noticed, are really interesting.

They have great feet that are very good at gripping.

So, there it goes.

Boy, that was fantastic.

I was a little worried about it, but, boy, it flew off perfectly.

That's a lot of fun.

This is Kristen Mattson, and Kristen's a terrific naturalist.

In fact, we worked together at the LowCountry Institute on Spring Island.

Kristen, thanks for letting us come visit your yard.

>> MATTSON: Well, thanks for coming, Tony.

I'm really excited to show you some of the cool stuff that we have going on in our backyard.

>> MILLS: So, I can tell you guys have done a whole bunch to make this yard eco-friendly.

So, like, what sorts of things have you been doing?

>> MATTSON: Well, in general, we try not to use a lot of pesticides, herbicides, things like that.

We've planted mostly native species.

We have a lot of things to attract pollinators, attract birds, different kinds of feed.

We have a ton of bird feeders that attract all different kinds of birds to the yard.

>> MILLS: You can never have too many bird feeders.

>> MATTSON: Apparently not.

[ Laughter ] >> MILLS: So, let's talk about why these native plants are so important.

>> MATTSON: Well, the native species that we have are adapted to our local conditions, so it doesn't require fertilizer or supplemental watering once they're established, so we really don't irrigate at all, which is really nice.

And then they also are the plants that support our native pollinators, that support caterpillars that the birds like to eat.

>> MILLS: I'm kind of distracted.

I keep looking around.

There's lots of buzzing and there's lots of insects flying around, butterflies.

I mean, there's a lot of life here.

>> MATTSON: That's one of the things I really like is we can come out here and you can just hear all of the different animals that are here in the yard.

And we have this really, like, oasis of habitat, even though we're really in the suburbs of the city.

>> MILLS: And from what you've told me, this is really kind of a family affair, isn't it?

Isn't everybody involved in this project, your whole family?

>> MATTSON: Absolutely.

My husband has done actually a lot of the work on this.

But with the inspiration that I've had such a passion for native plants for a really long time, and so it's really turned into this awesome place -- especially now that we've been stuck at home with quarantine.

We're able to come out here and enjoy this all the time.

>> MILLS: Do you find the kids want to be outside running around the yard a lot?

>> MATTSON: They do.

They make forts and they hide in the bushes and they try to climb the trees and they find animals and they have lots of fun out here.

Well, do you want to go check out the yard?

>> MILLS: Sure.

Let's do it.

>> MATTSON: Alright.

Let's go.

♪♪ >> MILLS: Kristen, I see you have some nice cherry trees here.

>> MATTSON: Yeah, one of the really nice things about this lot when we bought the house was that there were quite a few mature trees already here, and so this tree produces a ton of fruit.

During the summertime, the birds, they may not come to the feeder, but they can come in here and they can eat the fruit.

And then in the spring when there's tent caterpillars all over the tree, those are also food for them as well.

>> MILLS: As we walked up to the sassafras, we noticed that some of these leaves are folded over.

And I think we know what's inside those, right, Kristen?

>> MATTSON: Yeah, this is a host plant for one of our butterflies.

And inside the rolled leaf is the caterpillar.

>> MILLS: Spicebush swallowtail caterpillar.

You can see the wonderful eye spots.

>> MATTSON: Mm-hmm.

And they also have these little osmoterium.

So, if you disturb the caterpillar, it sticks those little orange things out, and they smell pretty bad.

So, whatever is bothering it will hopefully go away.

>> MILLS: You know, it almost looks like a snake tongue the way it pokes out, too.

>> MATTSON: Mm-hmm.

One of the things that I really love about the yard is that not only do we have flowers for nectar for butterflies, but we also have food for their larvae as well.

>> MILLS: And of course, this is gonna metamorphose into one of our most beautiful butterflies, the spicebush swallowtail.

>> MATTSON: Yep.

♪♪ >> MILLS: Kristen, I see the zipline here for the kids.

I might give this a try a little bit later.

>> MATTSON: Alright.

We'll do that.

♪♪ >> MILLS: Kristen, this meadow is amazing.

>> MATTSON: Yeah, we actually planted most of this from seed in an area that the dirt was already disturbed, and the pollinators absolutely love it.

>> MILLS: Yeah, a lot of buzzing around, a lot of things flying around in these flowers.

>> MATTSON: Yeah.

Native pollinators are one of our groups of animals that are having a lot of trouble, you know, due to pesticide use and land clearing, habitat change.

And so we really wanted to try to have as much diversity in our yard as possible.

>> MILLS: And the other thing is these aren't the type -- it's not dangerous to have these bees flying around.

>> MATTSON: No, they don't -- They really don't sting as long as you don't bother them.

>> MILLS: And they don't just need flowers.

They need native plants and native flowers.

>> MATTSON: Right.

Native plants that are actually producing pollen.

A lot of times, the cultivated stuff you buy, it's been bred not to reproduce, and so they don't produce the nectar and the pollen that the insects need.

♪♪ >> MILLS: Hey, Fisher, hey, Dylan, how are you guys?

>> Good.

>> MILLS: So, this is a really cool yard.

What sorts of things do you guys see here?

What kind of animals?

>> Sometimes we are able to see bird nests.

>> Hognose snakes.

>> MILLS: Man, I love hognose snakes.

It's one of my favorites.

>> MATTSON: What's your favorite animal to see in the yard?

>> Tree frogs?

>> MATTSON: Tree frogs.

Yeah.

>> MILLS: And tree frogs, of course, eat bugs, too, so they're fun.

And you said legless lizards too, right?

Those are neat, too.

I love those things.

>> MATTSON: Fisher, what's your favorite thing to do in the backyard?

>> Catch lizards.

>> MATTSON: Ah, yeah, he loves to catch green anoles.

>> MILLS: You know, Fisher, that's one of my favorite things to do -- catch lizards -- too.

>> MATTSON: Do you guys want to take Mr. Tony to see what we found in the front yard?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MILLS: Good.

Let's go check it out.

>> MATTSON: Alright.

Let's go.

♪♪ >> MILLS: So, what's in here, guys?

>> Um, a bird's nest.

>> MILLS: Oh, wow.

I can see it.

>> MATTSON: Yeah, it's got three chicks sticking their heads up.

>> MILLS: You know, I saw a bird fly out just a second ago.

So, what is it?

What kind of nest is it?

>> Cardinal.

>> MILLS: Wow.

>> MATTSON: Yes, so it's a cardinal nest.

The other day, we were out here in the front yard, and we heard the babies making all sorts of noise and then saw Mom fly out.

>> MILLS: Boy, yeah.

They're getting pretty big, aren't they?

>> MATTSON: Mm-hmm.

>> MILLS: They still don't have a lot of feathers on them, but that's really neat, guys.

>> MATTSON: Yeah, we get to see all sorts of cool stuff in the yard.

Like, if you have enough time to come out and wander around, you make discoveries.

>> MILLS: Well, so this is a beautiful yard.

It's a great place for birds.

But it didn't start looking like this.

I mean, how long you guys been here?

>> MATTSON: We've really only been working on the yard for about three years.

And when we moved in, it was pretty over grown because it hadn't had people living here for awhile.

And what that allowed us to do was take some of the plants that were growing here and leave them in place or even move them.

And this tree actually came from the backyard, and we moved it up here and it had four or five leaves on it when we planted it.

>> MILLS: Well, it looks a little better now, for sure.

>> MATTSON: Yeah.

I mean, it's grown really well.

>> MILLS: Well, you guys have done an amazing job here.

Thank you so much for letting us come visit.

>> MATTSON: Yeah, we had a great time.

And actually, I see the mom cardinal is right over there ready to bring some food, so we better get out of here.

>> MILLS: I guess you're right.

♪♪ There are some species of animals that live in our neighborhoods that seem to be absolutely everywhere.

Things like blue jays and gray squirrels are really, really common.

But there may be some species living in your yard that are so secretive you don't even realize they're there.

Guys, here is a rosy wolfsnail, and this is one of the fastest snails we have.

In fact, they will chase down and eat other snails.

And look at it using those tentacles to kind of tell what's around it.

Is there another snail around?

Of course, it can follow the trail of another snail.

And, you know, it seems kind of strange to think of a snail as -- I just scared it, unfortunately.

Seems kind of strange to think of a snail as chasing down and catching another snail, but speed is relative, so... You just got to be faster than the other snail.

Now that I've scared him, I'm gonna pick this guy up.

And if you turn it over, you can see it's kind of pulled inside.

And that's what a snail shell is so good for.

It's really good at protecting the soft parts of the body.

Euglandina rosea.

A very pink, very pretty snail for sure.

But these guys are really good at killing and eating other snail species.

And they'll eat slugs sometimes, too.

So, if you look at the tentacles, there's actually eye stocks and then there's some tentacles that are pointing down.

And those tentacles are what they use for sort of olfaction.

It's very much like their sense of smell.

And snails are really good at picking up on chemical signals that are around them.

Anyway, really cool.

♪♪ Guys, I found something kind of neat.

It is a black widow spider female.

I actually found the egg case, and then I saw this beautiful animal.

Now, of course, this is a really venomous spider, so the bite from it is really, really bad.

You don't want to get bit by one.

This was under something, as they often are.

So, generally, you don't see black widows unless you find something that's below ground level, something like a water meter, sometimes sort of on the side of a ditch, in a rotten log or something like that.

Now, I'm gonna flip it over so you can see the back a little bit.

This one's not really cooperating.

But they are beautiful spiders.

But the best way to deal with these is don't handle them like I am right now, but obviously I've got him so that he's on the opposite end of the stick that I'm holding.

Anyway, black widow -- and these are pretty common.

They're just very, very secretive.

I'm gonna put him down -- her down, actually -- and see if she'll crawl off.

And there she goes.

♪♪ The other day, I was walking around the yard, and I found this egg shell.

Now, I had a pretty good idea what it was, but I wasn't exactly sure.

I knew it was a reptile shell.

I knew what it might be, but it wasn't until my wife found this.

Let me reach down and grab this.

And here is a little baby box turtle.

So, this is this year's hatch, and what likely happened is there is a nest in the backyard, and one of the females laid eggs and the eggs hatched probably in the late fall, and then the little babies over wintered in the nest and didn't come out till the spring.

So, fairly recently.

Now, we have pretty good box turtle reproduction every year, so it's not unusual to find one, because we have several adults.

And so I don't know exactly who the parents are, but I do know where a male is, and he's very close by.

So I can -- I think I can grab him and we can have a look at him.

So, let me put this guy back in.

And then if we come right over here...and look what I found.

This is one of my favorite box turtles.

This is a big male.

Let me try and get ahold of him.

In fact, he's one of the biggest box turtles I've ever seen.

And I know he's a male because if I flip him over, his belly's scooped out.

The plastron is scooped out, and that's characteristic.

Also, it's got bright red eyes.

Females would have brown eyes.

Anyway, it's really cool.

So, we have several box turtles in the backyard.

Now, some of these have been in captivity for, I think, 47 years now.

They've been in this backyard for as long as we've lived here, and I've had them in captivity for over 25 years.

Now we would release him if we could, but we don't actually know where they originally came from.

Anyway, it's neat to know not only do we have box turtles, but they're reproducing and doing well right here in the backyard.

♪♪ ♪♪ You know, it's hard to believe, but we are right in the middle of town.

I mean, this wetland -- right around the perimeter of this wetland is a housing development.

But that does not mean it's not important habitat.

I mean, the birds coming in here are just absolutely unbelievable.

Now, a lot of these birds are ibis.

They're white ibis.

You see some immatures with darker feathers, but they're white birds with black tips on their wings.

And these birds rely on this spot for nesting.

And I'll tell you what's really cool.

They're not even really hunting here, because the chicks feed on freshwater crustaceans, which there are some of here, but mostly what they're having to do is fly all the way to the ACE Basin, where they can find enough crayfish to feed these young.

Now, there are fiddler crabs just around the corner, but fiddler crabs don't work for baby ibises because baby ibises don't have salt glands, so they can't eat salty sorts of things.

So, for awhile, these guys are gonna have to collect crayfish and other freshwater invertebrates.

Now, what's kind of interesting about this is initially one parent has to stay with the chicks all the time to protect it from the heat and from overheating.

But eventually the chicks get big enough where they can move around the nest and they can kind of get in the shade.

And both parents actually have to get out and collect crayfish because the growing chicks need so much.

♪♪ Now, the reason this is such a good spot is because there aren't a lot of the typical predators here.

And also there's a moat that goes all the way around the island, and that keeps raccoons from getting there.

In fact, if a raccoon tried to swim across -- and they can swim -- an alligator would get them.

And in this case, that's really good protection.

The alligators occasionally eat a baby ibis or something else, but they keep those raccoons out of the rookery.

♪♪ So, obviously there's a lot of cool animals that may live right around your house, but it's important to get out and walk around a little bit.

You might just have a habitat like this right down the street.

And, you know, it's not pristine, but it's really important habitat, especially if you're an ibis.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."

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