Made For The Marsh

Silky, our own Carolina Marsh Tacky

Horses have been present on Seabrook Island for generations, none more highly prized than the Carolina Marsh Tacky, now the official Heritage Horse of South Carolina and deeply entwined with Lowcountry history. We're fortunate to have two members of this rare breed as part of the herd at the Equestrian Center, like the mare Silky, a favorite mount for beach and trail rides on the island.

The ancestors of today's Marsh Tackies first arrived on the Carolina coast with Spanish conquistadors in the 17th century. Left behind when Spanish colonizing efforts failed to gain a foothold against competition from British and French rivals , the feral herd adapted to the rigors of the Lowcountry climate to evolve into today's Marsh Tackies, with thick manes, tails and skin for protection against insects, snake bites and dense underbrush. More importantly, the breed developed extraordinarily strong hooves, so strong that today's Tackies don't require shoes, an especially important advantage when striding through pluff mud. Tackies have even developed a unique behavior to free themselves if they become stuck in the mud: where most other horses would react frantically and work themselves deeper, Tackies will calmly lay on their sides and edge themselves out of trouble.

Francis Marion and his trusted Marsh Tacky

This unique breed was favored in Revolutionary War times by Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox", who was able to negotiate such treacherous terrain thanks to these physical traits and the breed's much-prized calm, steady temperament and comfortable gait. Confederate troops were often able to out-maneuver mounted Union forces for the same reason during the Civil War.

Two "sand pounders" on patrol during WWII

Even into modern times, the Marsh Tacky was used to patrol the coastline for German submarines during World War Two as part of mounted "Sand Pounder" volunteer patrols.

Bloodlines are now carefully registered and monitored by the Carolina Marsh Tacky Association, thanks to a DNA registry developed by the Livestock Conservancy. Look for Silky, with her dark mane and buckskin-like coat, the next time you drive by the Equestrian Center.

Looking For Love

The little guy above may be barely two inches across, but fiddler crabs like this mate-seeking male are an important if little noticed part of our island ecosystem. This one is a mud fiddler (Uca pugnax) who lives in the creekside mud banks at Seabrook's crabbing dock, waving his immense left claw to attract a female to his burrow. If one approaches, he'll also drum his claw or stamp his legs on the ground to keep her interested. Mating occurs inside the burrow, after which the female emerges in about two weeks to release her eggs into the water.

Fiddler crabs are one of the most common and, if you look for them, most conspicuous inhabitants of the Lowcountry's tidal inlets and intertidal zones. (Two other common types along the Atlantic seaboard are the sand fiddler and the red-jointed fiddler.) They're especially abundant at this time of year, the spring mating season. You'll see them foraging in large groups, emerging between high tides to feed from burrows that can be nearly two-feet in depth.

courtesy NOAA

The male's claw at maturity can account for 65% of its total body weight; and if he loses it in a fight with rival male, another will grow on the opposite side at the next molt and a normal-sized one will replace the lost claw. That smaller claw is used to sift mud and sand for algae, fungus and other organic matter transported to the mouth, the back-and-forth motion as if the animal's playing the fiddle of its larger claw. Once the food's been extracted, the crab will roll the remaining sediment into a ball and leave it at the mouth of its burrow to be carried away in the next high tide.

Because they're constantly sifting soil, fiddlers are considered important for aerating the ground and helping to maintain healthy soil conditions. And they're an important protein source for birds like herons and egrets, mammals such as raccoons and foxes, and even other, larger crabs like blue crabs. Keep an eye out for these diminutive but crucial inhabitants as you enjoy the creeks and tidal inlets of Seabrook, and give them a wave back!

Nesting

Some of the summer visitors we most look forward to are due to start arriving in the coming weeks. It's nesting season for loggerhead turtles, and we're fortunate to be among the north and mid-Atlantic sites favored by loggerheads. Our friends at the Seabrook Island Turle Patrol are preparing for the arrivals, with the season officially starting on May 1st and continuing through September.

Loggerheads are named for their large heads and powerful jaws that allow them to crack through the shells of crabs, whelks and conch on their carnivorous diet. Except for the brief time females dig and lay their nests, loggerheads spend all their time in the oceans and coastal waters on both sides of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and in the eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, migrating thousands of miles during their life spans, which an be up to eighty years. Females lay eggs every two to three years and return to the general area they themselves hatched from to dig their nests. On our side of the Atlantic, south Florida typically ranks each year with the highest number of nests, up to 10,000 of them in some years. The South Carolina coast averages six-thousand or so sites annually. Here on Seabrook Island, 2020 was a peak year for nesting sites, with more than ninety nests identified. Last year, tropical storm Idalia washed away many nests.

Loggerhead populations have been in decline for some years worldwide, although the NOAA recently reported that the slide seems to have slowed in some parts of the globe. Dangers to loggerheads include as fishing boat bycatch, loss of nesting habitat due to coastal development, and marine pollution and trash. That's all on top of the hazardous journey to the ocean that hatchlings must make under the watchful eyes of predators like shorebirds, coyotes and foxes. Hatchlings, who navigate from nests to the water by fixing on the brightest light of the horizon, can become disoriented by bright lighting from beachside homes and roadways, causing them to head landward instead of seaward.

You can help our loggerheads survive by observing "lights out" on the beach, taking trash away with you when you leave the beach, and filling in any holes in the sand that can trap a female turtle. Even better, join the Turtle Patrol!