Hilton Head Island lifeguards spotted a venomous rattlesnake slinking quietly across a Sea Pines beach Monday morning. The sandy serpent was relocated and no beachgoers were hurt, according to Shore Beach Service.
The snake was seen around 9 a.m. near the Sea Pines Beach Club as it wriggled its way upshore, according to beach patrol director Mike Wagner. Wildlife management officers from the gated community were called to remove the animal, which the state’s Department of Natural Resources confirmed to be an eastern diamondback rattlesnake.
Easily identified by its pattern of diamond-shaped blotches with a border of yellowish scales, the eastern diamondback is the largest type of rattlesnake in the world and the most venomous snake in North America. They’re common in the coastal lowlands of South Carolina — especially in sand dunes — but their numbers are on the decline across the southeastern United States due to habitat loss.
It’s not the first time rattlers have been seen on the sands of Hilton Head. Beachgoers in August 2017 were shocked after one of the snakes “just rolled out of a wave” in Port Royal Plantation. Matt Kraycar, owner of the Bluffton-based K&K Wildlife Services, said he removed his last diamondback from a Hilton Head beach as recently as last month.
The snakes are also skilled swimmers. With the help of a microchip planted under one diamondback’s skin, researchers at Parris Island discovered last year that the snake swam more than five miles across the salty waters of the Port Royal Sound — the farthest migration ever observed in the species.
All Hilton Head beaches flew yellow flags Wednesday afternoon due to a rip current advisory as the island began seeing the wide-reaching effects of Hurricane Helene. The rapidly intensifying storm is expected to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend Region late Thursday as a Category 3 hurricane, meteorologists say.
Beach patrol director Mike Wagner advised against swimming on Thursday and Friday due to the rough water and “uncertainty” in conditions through the end of the week.
