NC Wildlife Commission: have you seen any hellbenders lately?

ASHEVILLE — For such giants in the salamander world, Eastern hellbenders, which can grow up to 2 feet long, can be strangely hard to find in the game of hide and seek.

But that’s because there isn’t much natural habitat left for them to hide behind, and because their numbers had severely dwindled.

So after a decade of scouring rivers and streams across Western North Carolina for the slithery critters, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission wildlife diversity biologist Lori Williams, needs some help.

She is asking for anyone who fishes, or spends time around rivers, to report any sightings of hellbender salamanders to the wildlife agency.

Reported sightings are an important part of a long-term inventory and monitoring project for hellbenders that Williams and John Groves, curator emeritus with the North Carolina Zoo, began in 2007.

“Our 10-year survey was a long-term effort to try to understand how hellbenders are doing, where they are and if they are still where they used to be?” Williams said.

While Williams and Groves are still compiling their data, they found the aquatic salamanders in a much smaller range than they had been historically known to inhabit.

“Years ago, up north, you could count 14-18 hellbenders in a stream in an hour. Now we’re lucky to see one an hour,” Groves said. “We looked at 101 streams in WNC and only found hellbenders in half of them. And in some rivers and streams, we only found one. They’re still declining. That’s not real promising.”

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Hellbenders are the largest salamander in North America, averaging 16 to 17 inches in length, and weighing up to 2 pounds, Williams said. They are found in fast-moving, well-oxygenated streams in the mountains of WNC, favoring cold and clean water.

Because they breathe through their skin, hellbenders are sensitive to poor water quality, and are considered a “bioindicator,” or a species that can alert biologists to degrading environmental conditions when they first begin, Williams said.

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The hellbender is a nocturnal amphibian that often hides under the same rock for its entire adult life span, which can be up to 30 years. It emerges at night to feed largely on crayfish. The brown, mottled, slimy-looking creature with a large head and long tail is often called a “water dog,” “devil dog,” “snot otter” or “dragon."

It has remained largely unchanged since the age of the dinosaurs and for millions of years has made its home in WNC.

Williams said hellbenders were once common, ranging as far north as New York’s Susquehanna River, and found throughout the Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri river drainages. But their populations have declined about 60-70 percent throughout much of their habitat.

She said preliminary data from the 10-year study shows an estimated 30 percent or higher loss or decline of hellbender populations overall in Western North Carolina.

“We estimate another 30 percent of our WNC streams appear to have stable populations currently. The rest of our current North Carolina hellbender streams have an unknown status in terms of population health,” Williams said. “Overall we’re doing much better in North Carolina than in other states, where they’re down to just one stream.”

The salamanders are a species of special concern in North Carolina and are being considered for inclusion on the federal Endangered Species List, she said.

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Because of their listing, it is illegal to take, possess, transport or sell a hellbender or to attempt to do so. A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor, which can result in a fine and up to 120 days in jail. People should also leave river rocks alone, since they provide essential nesting habitat and shelter for hellbenders.

The hellbender loss is due mainly to declining water quality and habitat degradation from sedimentation as a result of road building and other development, as well as “persecution” from anglers who mistakenly think that hellbenders decrease trout populations, Williams said.

“The misconceptions, some of these handed down through generations, is that hellbenders are poisonous or toxic or venomous. None of that is true. They think they hurt trout populations. That’s not true. They scavenge for discarded bait, but don’t have an impact on the big trout we stock. In fact, those big, hungry trout are probably eating baby hellbenders more often,” Williams said.

“Some people just think they’re bad luck, because a parent or grandparent told them. They’re an indicator of good water quality and healthy systems. They’re a lot more sensitive to pollution. We’re trying to get the word out to anglers that if you see a hellbender, it’s a really good sign. It means the water is clean and the trout are happy.”

Williams and Groves won’t reveal any of the streams where they know hellbenders to be, but said they can typically be found where there are trout.

Want to help?

Anyone who finds a hellbender is asked to leave it alone but to note the location (physical location or GPS coordinates) and take a photo if possible and email that information to Williams at lori.williams@ncwildlife.org.

If anglers happen to catch one on hook and line, they should carefully remove the hook if it is safe to do so without harming the animal or cut the line as close as possible and return it back to the water. People also can call the Wildlife Interaction Helpline 866-318-2401 and provide details of the observation.