2/50.- Hilton Head Island, Sand dunes

The sand dunes together with the sea oats help prevent erosion. On the beach you can find a variety of creatures such as starfish, sand dollars and hermit crabs. Loggerhead Sea Turtles are a threatened species which live in the ocean around the island. The female comes ashore each summer to lay eggs. She digs a hole and lays approximately 100 eggs, covers it with sand and then jazzes off back into the ocean, leaving behind her offspring. Seems a lot of eggs, doesn’t it? But only about one out of 100 hatchlings will survive. If you happen to be staying in a beachfront property from May 1 to October 31, you’ll be expected to turn of your outside lights after ten o’clock at night. Want to know why? Because the poor baby turtles who emerge some two months later from the eggs can become disoriented by the lights and might make their way inland instead of going into the ocean.

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