Find Nature In South Carolina

Additional Wildlife of South Carolina

To flesh out your understanding of the region’s natural history, here is a breakdown of the specific taxa you can expect to encounter in the Palmetto State.

Birds (Avifauna) The salt marshes of South Carolina are famous for the Swallow-tailed Kite, a raptor with a deeply forked tail that drinks on the wing by skimming the river surface. The recovery of the Wood Stork is a major success story here; these massive birds nest in cypress swamps, requiring specific water level drops to concentrate the fish they hunt by touch. In the old-growth floodplain forests of Congaree National Park, the Barred Owl is ubiquitous, known for its “Who cooks for you?” call echoing through the bottomlands.

Mammals South Carolina is one of the few places on Earth where Bottlenose Dolphins exhibit “strand feeding” behavior. In the tidal creeks near Charleston and Hilton Head, pods work together to herd fish onto mudbanks and then launch themselves out of the water to feed on land. The Coyote has recently established itself across the entire state, filling the niche left by the extirpated Red Wolf, though this has put pressure on the native White-tailed Deer populations.

Insects Congaree National Park is one of the few places outside of the Great Smokies where Synchronous Fireflies can be seen. For a brief window in late May, thousands of these beetles flash in unison in the dark floodplain forest. The Carolina Mantis is the state insect, a native predator that is beneficial for agriculture, distinguishable from invasive mantises by its smaller size and mottled gray-brown coloration that blends perfectly with pine bark.

Plants The Yellow Jessamine is the state flower, a vine that climbs high into the pine canopy and drops fragrant, trumpet-shaped yellow flowers in early spring. The Bald Cypress trees in the Congaree floodplain are some of the tallest in the eastern U.S., forming a “super canopy” that towers over the hardwoods. Uniquely, South Carolina also hosts native populations of the Venus Flytrap in Horry County, representing the southern limit of this carnivorous plant’s tiny global range.

Fungi The humid, sandy soils of the coast are excellent for Puffballs, specifically the Calvatia species, which can grow to the size of a volleyball. Cauliflower Mushrooms (Sparassis crispa) are a choice edible found at the base of old pines, resembling a massive pile of egg noodles. In the swamps, the Swamp Beacon fungus is a small, aquatic mushroom that helps decompose the massive amount of leaf litter that falls into the blackwater rivers.

South Carolina Biodiversity Profile

South Carolina is defined by a dramatic elevational collapse, known locally as the descent from the “Blue Wall” to the “Lowcountry.” In the northwest corner, the Blue Ridge Escarpment drops abruptly, creating a temperate rainforest environment in the Jocassee Gorges. This region receives the highest rainfall in the eastern U.S. outside of the Pacific Northwest, fostering a diverse understory of ferns and rare wildflowers like the Oconee Bell. The steep topography creates fast-flowing, oxygen-rich streams that support native Brook Trout populations at the southernmost limit of their range.

Bisecting the state is the Sandhills region, which marks the ancient coastline of the continent millions of years ago. These deep, sandy soils are the remnants of prehistoric dunes and now host a xeric (dry) ecosystem dominated by Longleaf Pine and Turkey Oak. This “fall line” is a zone of ecological tension where the hard rocks of the Piedmont give way to the soft sediments of the coastal plain, often creating rapids that historically blocked fish migration but now serve as spawning grounds for sturgeon and shad.

The defining feature of the coastal plain is the presence of Carolina Bays. These mysterious, elliptically shaped depressions are oriented northwest-to-southeast and fill with rainwater to create isolated freshwater wetlands. Because they lack inflow or outflow streams, they are free of predatory fish, making them critical breeding grounds for amphibians like the Flatwoods Salamander and the Gopher Frog.

Finally, the coast itself is anchored by the ACE Basin (Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto rivers). This is one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the Atlantic coast. The confluence of these blackwater and brownwater rivers creates a nutrient-rich mixing zone that supports massive beds of oysters and serves as a nursery for shrimp and blue crabs. The legacy of historic rice culture here has left a landscape of “impoundments”—managed wetlands that allow biologists to manipulate water levels, creating ideal conditions for wintering waterfowl and wading birds.