Everyone wants to see a gator. But while you're searching for one, don't forget to take in the island's huge range of species and natural environments.

Alligators

Whenever you're near fresh water, take extra care. That darkish "log" you see floating in the lagoon could be an alligator with very sharp teeth, bulbous eyes, four fast-traveling legs and a strong tail with dangerous whip-like power.

Estimates suggest that more than 1,000 of the reptiles, including the young, inhabit the island with thousands living in the Lowcountry mainland.

Their favorite sport is sun-bathing, which helps them maintain a steady 89-degree body temperature and is vital to their health and growth. These leather-backed "swamp dragons" grow to nearly 14 feet long in South Carolina. Older males tip the scales at 500 pounds. Females tend to be smaller and less active.

Gators eat about a pound of food weekly. They sneak up from behind to catch snakes, birds, fish, crabs and rodents. Their jaws chomp down with more than 1,000 pounds of pressure per inch. Then they up-end their prey using their thrashing, muscular tails and drag the morsel under the water.

Humans should be aware that gators do pose a threat to people and pets. Gators are not tame. They are short-tempered and lightning fast and can outrun humans for 25 yards on land. Keep children and pets away from lagoon edges.

As with most wild creatures, gators should not be taunted or teased. Most of all, they should not be fed, not even marshmallows. (It is illegal.) And if your golf ball lands near a gator, take a mulligan.

Deer

Don't be surprised if you encounter a deer or two when you are out bicycling or golfing on Hilton Head. Hundreds of white-tailed deer make our island their home.

An island-wide ban on hunting and increased land clearing have helped white-tails flourish here. Seedlings and brush that sprout near roadsides, fairways and homes provide ideal food and cover. Vegetarians with appetites as big as the great outdoors, deer favor acorns, ferns, fruits, mushrooms, young leaves and shrubs and flowers, much to the dismay of island gardeners.

The Hilton Head white-tail is a special subspecies of deer found only on this island. Having inbred for generations, our deer stand about three feet tall at the shoulder. On average, they weigh only 130 pounds. Their camouflaged coats change to match seasonal Southern foliage, ranging from tawny-red in summer to dusky-gray in winter.

White-tailed deer spot humans long before we see them. Alerted by their keen hearing and vision, they'll bound away at 28 miles per hour when frightened. The last sight you'll see when deer are running is their fluffy white tails.

By nature, deer browse at night and are especially active in the fall. Motorists should drive carefully on winding dark roads, especially in the dim light at dawn or dusk.

Sea turtles

Loggerhead turtles are listed with the U.S. government as an threatened species. Humans are turtles' main enemies; poachers steal their eggs and kill adult turtles for their shells and to make food, like soup. Turtles have died by eating garbage that humans toss into the ocean. Fishermen sometimes inadvertantly kill loggerheads by drowning them in their nets. When beaches are used heavily, as is the case on Hilton Head, many turtles' breeding habits are disrupted as turtles often return to the same beach for mating. Disturbing turtles and their nests is strictly prohibited on the island.

The loggerhead mating season lasts from late March until June, and the turtles nest at night. The average clutch of eggs is 100, although very few hatchlings survive into adulthood. The time, as well as the gender, of hatchlings depends on the temperature, but an incubation period on the island averages about 65 days. After hatching, the turtles use light reflected off the water's surface to navigate their way from the nest to the ocean. Many of the turtles' predators are keenly aware of the time of year when this journey takes place and lay in wait to attack. Even if a hatchling successfully reaches the sea, it still must avoid sharks and other marine enemies.

The turtles that survive their hatchling phase enter a period in their lives scientists still don't understand fully. It is thought that the young turtles spend the next few years adrift in the open ocean until they reach adulthood, when they migrate back to the coast and begin feeding on invertebrates living on the ocean floor.

Gray squirrels

Our peppy gray squirrels live the high life in autumn. Scampering along golf course roughs, lurking near lawns and bike trails, or hurtling from limb to limb, familiar bushy tails are out and active now, eating and gathering food to store for the winter.

In dawnlight, and again from 3 p.m. to dusk, squirrels rummage the forest floor below hardwoods and pines. The treasure they seek is "mast" acorns, hickory nuts, pine seeds and berries produced in abundance by trees and shrubs in fall. A nutty gravel heap in your walkway is a sure sign that hungry island squirrels have made your abode their mast headquarters.

Acorns are the most nutritious ingredient in the mast granola. These meaty, encapsulated seeds hang in clusters of two to five from local oaks including live, laurel and willow oaks, and less common post, blackjack and Southern red oaks. Most of these trees yield acorns every two years.

Gray squirrels also eat pine seeds. Longleaf, loblolly, shortleaf and slash pines produce large prickly cones on their lower branches in September. A squirrel's favorite habit is to perch on some lofty limb and gnaw apart the reddish cone to extract the oily seeds (there are about 50 seeds in one cone). Since many island parking lots are designed around sizeable pines, it's no wonder so many cone chips -- the chewed-off scales on the cone -- always seem to end up on our automobile hoods!

Mast nuts and seeds are protein-rich, high in starch, and are loaded with fat, vital nutritional elements that supply energy to winter wildlife here.

To cache a store of winter food, those industrious gray squirrels bury acorns, one at a time, under leaf litter. Even months later, their acute sense of smell will guide them back to their stash.

But not all mast is unearthed, and in time, uncollected acorns grow into new oak giants. So squirrels, those wiry rodents we take for granted, are Hilton Head Island's unpaid forest conservationists, the great Johnny Appleseeds in nature that tirelessly replant our beautiful maritime timberlands.

Other wildlife

The Lowcountry is home to many different species of animals and birds. Gray foxes, raccoons and opossums are frequently seen. Some of the more common birds are:

• Egrets

• Wood Ducks

• Bobwhite Quail

• Bluejays

• Brown Thrashers

• Wild Turkeys

• Woodpeckers

• White-Breasted Nuthatches

What is the salt marsh?

An emerald prairie of waving grass cut by forever winding, mud-banked creeks is the panorama that first greets all those who come to Hilton Head Island via the Wilton Graves Bridge. This is the salt marsh, a half-land, half-tidewater world that is a nursery of life for shellfish, fish, marine birds and more.

The salt marsh is a unique environment comprised of salt-tolerant grasses and herbs that are flooded and drained twice each day by the tides. Waters that swirl into the marsh are brackish, meaning it is less salty than open seawater. Newcomers commonly misname the salt marsh a swamp. True, the area is wet, but unlike a swamp, it has no trees.

This low-lying tideland is a border zone found in estuaries, the inshore waters between Hilton Head and the mainland. The salt marsh forms in sediments deposited on the leeside of this island by ocean-bound rivers such as the Broad, Chechessee, May and Cooper. A limited community of plants colonize the sediments and trap further soil draining into the marsh following rainstorms.

The seasonal decay of marsh plants build a soggy but fertile soil called "pluff mud" by locals. Seen at low tide, this pudding-brown muck releases a pungent odor when it bakes under the sun.

Salt marshes thrive in the protected, still waters behind barrier islands like Hilton Head. The ocean isles act as giant sandbars, absorbing high waves. Deflected around the islands, tidal currents are slowed, and they gently flood and flush salt marshes with a clockwork supply of brackish water.

At high tide, water flows in the creeks, pulled by the gravitational attraction between the ocean and the sun and moon. The high or flood tide almost covers the dominant cordgrass (Spartina arterniflora). The moving water transports plankton and stirs up nutrients in pluff mud, thereby supplying filter feeders like oysters, clams and mussels with food. Tides also carry ocean fish, dolphin and sea turtles into the marsh to feed and breed.

At low tide, ebbing (lowering) waters transport a broth of dissolved nutrients, marsh plants and small animals into deeper waters and even out to the ocean food chain. High-ground creatures like raccoons, wading birds, grackles and deer invade the exposed tidal flats. Here they hunt shellfish, crabs, snails and insects and graze on cordgrass crusted with sea salt.

Hilton Head Island's salt marshes are extensive, but the best places to go to see marsh life are South Beach (Sea Pines Plantation), Shelter Cove and Broad Creek (take a sunset boat tour), and Skull Creek.

Natural bonsai in the dunes

The next time you hike back from a beachwalk, notice the group of unusual-looking evergreen trees growing behind the front dunes. These are the seaward-facing timber of the maritime forest, meaning the woods found near the sea, and they are specially adapted to live in the harsh oceanfront environment.

Maritime trees find their humble beginnings in decaying leaf litter under duneland shrubs. When the organic matter biodegrades, it mulches the arid, quick-draining sand. Under the shade of bushes like yaupon holly and bayberry, this mulch provides a cool, moist bedding where windblown and animal-borne tree seeds can sprout.

To survive in the blast of seabreeze and dry sand, dune trees have evolved tough leaves and strong root systems.

The foliage -- small leaves, stiff needles and leathery fronds -- is coated with protective cellulose cells that fend off blowing salt and sand, scalding sun and windchill. If you rub these leaves between your fingers, they'll feel polished and almost artificial to the touch.

Even with their special foliage, the trees tend to appear stunted and flattened, like full-sized bonsai plants. This effect occurs because the relentless wind pushes the limbs backwards, away from the ocean, and shears uppermost greenery.

Roots must spread far and wide to support the windblown trees. Yet they also must tap downward to reach water. Duneland trees drink from an upwelling lens of nearly fresh ground water that floats near the surface and above saltwater invading subsoil from the sea.

Today on Hilton Head Island, a town Tree Protection Ordinance preserves maritime trees from irresponsible cutting. These unusual "natural bonsai" will continue to provide food and shelter for shoreside wildlife and shade and windbreaks for our growing community.