many different species, and protection from the elements for all sorts of creatures. The string of ponds as well as both fresh and salt-water marshes allow animals to thrive on Kiawah. Animals love“ edges,” areas lush with growth, blessed with water, and full of edible delights. Kiawah is blessed with an abundance of edges and buffer zones. What we see on our Island today has taken almost half a century to evolve. This slow pace of development has been beneficial to wildlife. Animals are better at slow adaptation than they are at quick changes.
The food chain on Kiawah functions with remarkable interconnectedness. At the top of the mountain are the predators that live here: bobcats, alligators, and birds of prey. Such predators thrive because their prey also thrives. Giant live oaks drop acorns throughout the Island, providing food not only for bobcats, but for deer, raccoons, squirrels, and other animals as well. Varied plant life grows tall and thick, allowing these same animals to enjoy a healthy and diverse diet. As deer and other species thrive, bobcats have a more robust environment in which to live. Bobcats thin out deer herds by as much as half, targeting newborn fawns. While this may sound cruel, the presence of a healthy bobcat population is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. Years ago, including the time when deer hunting was still allowed on Kiawah, deer accidents on our roads were much more common than today. We can thank bobcats and, to a lesser degree, alligators for this reduced risk to human safety. The roughly 30 % of newborn deer that survive to adulthood is a sustainable number supported by the natural ecosystem.
Birds of prey, such as hawks, bald eagles, and ospreys, troll for fish in waterways abundant with life. The healthy aquatic environments are critical for these majestic animals to thrive. They also help with rodent control, even snagging the ubiquitous squirrel from time to time. The smaller predators, including raccoons, possums, and the aforementioned
squirrel serve a vital role in the food chain. Removing any of them from the system would have impacts elsewhere, likely not understood until after the fact.
If man were not present on Kiawah, the island would still be a largely undisturbed maritime forest. Wild animals would roam, plant life would be abundant, and the view of the Island from the ocean would be breathtaking. Before human intervention, bears traversed the Island, as did wolves. Were man not present today, the trees would be thicker and the overhead canopy much denser. The underneath plant and animal life would likely be more challenged because of the difficulty of sunshine penetrating the dense growth. That’ s not to say one outcome is better than the other, instead that Kiawah’ s ecosystem has adapted well to the inevitable changes that development has brought. In many ways, Kiawah today is a healthier environment for some species than had it been left undisturbed. The best example is deer, which find Kiawah a far more attractive habitat than it was 40 years ago.
Kiawah is unique in how much attention is given to environmental health. There are certainly other environmentally friendly island developments: Bald Island in North Carolina and Little St. Simons Island in Georgia for example, but almost none where more research is conducted. Time and money are expended to study our Island, to understand what particular indicator species tell us. Painted buntings and several varieties of marsh sparrows tell researchers a great deal about the health of our ecosystem. Understanding the pressures brought about in both natural and human-impacted ways allows Kiawah the opportunity to adjust when necessary for our continued long-term health. NK
Editor’ s note: Special thanks to Jim Jordan, Town of Kiawah Island’ s Wildlife Biologist, for his insights and direction in writing this article.
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