Month: November 2021

Holly Jolly Jekyll Returns!

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Summer Conley, JIA Marketing Coordinator

The most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner: The Holly Jolly Jekyll season returns November 26 through January 2 and the halls are decked and ready to celebrate!

The island is buzzing with seasonal festivities and family-friendly events, including the Holly Jolly Light Tours, where visitors can enjoy a trolley ride around the island to take in more than one million lights! The whole family can sit back, relax, and view the lights from Beach Village to the Historic District. Trolley riders will enjoy festive holiday beverages and music to sing along to! For those interested in enjoying the lights from the comfort of their own vehicle, Jekyll Island also offers a Self-Guided Light Tours experience through directional signage and a Google-enabled map showcasing the island’s best light displays!

On behalf of its Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the Jekyll Island Authority will also be introducing its newest event of the season, the Cold-Stunned Plunge happening November 27! This fun (and a little frigid!) fundraising event will benefit the rehabilitation efforts of the Center, on behalf of the Jekyll Island Foundation. Mascot Scute C. Turtle and friends will cheer on participants and hang around for festive photos while they collect their commemorative t-shirts.

Other fun activities include Peppermint Land at Jekyll Island Mini Golf, where visitors can enjoy one or both of the 18-hole courses while surrounded by life-size gumdrops, peppermint sticks, gingerbread friends, and more. Play into the evening and enjoy the lights all season long! Drive-in movies featuring ‘Frosty the Snowman’ and Holiday Fireworks will also be happening on select nights.

Visitors looking to do a little holiday shopping can also stop by the newest addition to the season, the Holly Jolly Jekyll Trading Post! Enjoy a festive selection of novelties and collectibles at this Christmas-themed shop and pick up official ‘Holly Jolly Jekyll’ holiday gifts of the season!

And, for those interested in spreading some holiday cheer, there’s no better time to give the gift of a membership to the Jekyll Island Foundation. Memberships directly support the funding of Jekyll Island’s natural, cultural and historic resources through conservation, preservation, and educational projects. Whether visiting for the night or all season long, a membership is a wonderful way to ensure the magic of Jekyll Island remains beyond the season.

The Wanderer Memory Trail

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Taylor Davis, JIA Historic Preservationist

The Jekyll Island Foundation is pleased to announce the award of a grant from the Friends of Coastal Georgia History to fund upgrades and enhancements to the Wanderer Memory Trail. Located at the south end of Jekyll Island in the St. Andrews picnic area, the Trail serves as an interactive, educational experience meant to interpret the event of the ship, Wanderer, coming aground on Jekyll Island. The site is designated a ‘Site of Memory’ under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Slave Route Project, an international initiative that works to discover details about and promote awareness of the transatlantic slave trade and history of slavery.

The Wanderer was the second to last documented ship to bring an illegal cargo of people from Africa to the United States and on November 28, 1858, more than 400 enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of Jekyll Island, leaving behind one deadly journey only to begin another. Wanderer survivors consisted of kidnapped children, captive warriors, ambushed traders, and African royalty, with the majority being boys between 13 and 18 years old.

In 2018, the Jekyll Island Authority enhanced a tribute previously built in honor of the Wanderer Survivors, by replacing existing historical site markers—erected in modern day St. Andrews Beach Park where the Wanderer ran aground attempting to enter Jekyll Creek—with a permanent multimedia installation that offers greater interactive opportunities for education and understanding. Made up of eight (8) individual exhibits, the Trail walks visitors through the story of Umwalla, a young African boy brought to America on the ship, from when he was captured until he is freed. Historical information is also included along the way to aid parents/caregivers in the explanation of context and complex issues to children.

In the years since the Trail was built, the Authority has tended the exhibit, observing its usage, and seeking feedback on the guest experience. A series of enhancements and improvements were identified that take advantage of current technological advances and more effective storytelling aides to ensure visitor enjoyment as well as appropriate interpretation of complex and compelling historical and educational narratives. Improvements include an additional solar-powered audio station with new oral histories, repair of a solar panel on a current audio station, rerouting the trail to improve visitor safety while lowering the impact of visitors on the adjacent natural environment, and replacing and/or redesigning damaged (i.e., by weather) interpretive exhibits to withstand the elements and repeated interactions with visitors. Enhancements are expected to be complete by mid-spring 2022.

On your next trip to Jekyll Island be sure to visit the Wanderer Slave Ship exhibit in the Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum gallery. For more information on the Wanderer Memory Trail, click HERE.

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes on Jekyll Island

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Joseph Colbert, JIA Wildlife Biologist

Last year through support from Jekyll Island Foundation donors, the Jekyll Island Authority Conservation department research team introduced its Eastern Diamondback Health Study (EDHS). When the study began, a search of resources and known literature was conducted to learn more about snake health only to discover there is very little information available on the subject. This is particularly true of the eastern diamondback rattlesnakes that researchers have been working with for a decade on the island, which presented an opportunity for the first Jekyll Island study of its kind.

The purpose of the EDHS was to evaluate what blood chemistry can reveal about snake health. For example, when people go to a doctor for a check-up, they provide a blood sample, and if the results show they are high or low in a specific value, such as calcium, proteins, or triglycerides, those results give the doctor information about the health of their patient. Likewise, animals that are healthy or unhealthy also have blood chemistry that falls within a specific range of values. As a result of the bloodwork study, the research team now has detailed health information for eastern diamondback rattlesnakes on Jekyll Island and are working on publishing these results in scientific literature so other wildlife biologists and veterinarians can reference. This breakthrough information reveals when a snake is sick or under stress which, unlike some other animal species, is difficult or impossible to know by just looking at them.

However, the most exciting discovery is that before becoming pregnant, females have elevated levels of calcium, phosphorus, and triglycerides up to 12 months prior to giving birth. This is remarkable because snakes only gestate (carry) for approximately 6-7 months. Because researchers seek to secure the future of native wildlife that utilize Jekyll Island, understanding reproduction dynamics is key. When tracking eastern diamondbacks, staff is often able to observe pregnant females or witness that they’ve given birth (rattlesnakes bear live young). By comparing the blood chemistry of the 6 females in the study with blood taken from 50 other snakes, the team now confirms that pregnancy can be predicted in eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, another major first. Researchers believe these results are likely to apply to other reptile species in need of conservation. By sampling individuals in a specific location, biologists can use Jekyll Island research results to determine if a population is thriving or suffering and how many females are pregnant.

So, on your next excursion into nature, think about how the health of the animals that share our world is as important to them and their survival as your health is to you. For some animals, such as eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, individual health can also be a matter of species survival. The Jekyll Island Authority Conservation department is grateful of the support from donors of the Jekyll Island Foundation for funding this important, breakthrough research project.

To support the work of the Jekyll Island Foundation, click HERE.

The Patrol Team

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Davide Zailo, JIA Research Specialist

Pillar #3: Research

The Jekyll Island Authority’s Conservation Department, working alongside staff at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, collects data on all species of turtle found on Jekyll Island to develop a better understanding of the conservation needs and issues they face. From sea turtles on Jekyll’s oceanfront beaches, to freshwater turtles and box turtles on the island’s interior, to diamondback terrapins that inhabit our marshes, each one is studied. By doing so, staff can better manage both the habitats being protected and educate residential and visitor communities to partner in a collective responsibility for island stewardship.  Jekyll Island is a model community that strikes a delicate balance between the natural and human world. Only with a deep understanding of both of these aspects can we accomplish our conservation goals.

The JIA’s flagship field research program consists of monitoring and collecting information on nesting sea turtles that visit the island’s beaches every summer. The night patrol team works from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m., guided by turtle-friendly red lights. The patrol team’s goal is to encounter as many nesting sea turtles as possible and when appropriate, give each a unique identification tag, collect information on size and general appearance to gauge health, and protect their nest with a large screen to reduce chances of predation. As the night patrol shift ends, researchers are quickly replaced by the dawn patrol team. This daylight team has a different set of duties: perform a thorough survey of the entire island’s beaches, protect nests, and collect habitat information in areas the night patrol team cannot survey due to lack of light. Finally, the dawn patrol team enters data and prepares gear for the next evening shift.

The Jekyll Island project is one of the longest-term projects of its kind. As a result of these efforts, in the 2021 season, more than 13,000 loggerhead sea turtle eggs were protected and resulted in more than 7,000 hatchlings. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center educated over 5,000 individuals during chance encounters about sea turtle conservation efforts. And, thanks to the generous support of the Jekyll Island Foundation and its donors, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center received a new UTV to continue monitoring efforts for nesting sea turtles. With the 2022 nesting season just around the corner, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center will continue its effort to make an even greater impact on the rehabilitation, education and research for this resilient species.

Find Pillar #1 HERE, Pillar #2 HERE

Author’s note: Established in 2007, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) is a hospital that primarily cares for sick and injured turtles – the only wildlife hospital focusing on turtles in the state of Georgia.  The mission of the GSTC encompasses three pillars: 1) Rehabilitation, 2) Education, and 3) Research. Through these pillars guests are connected to individual patient stories and the broader threats these animals face. Since opening its doors, the GSTC has successfully released over 600 sea turtles.