The Heavenly Hellbender

West Virginia’s giant salamander is a distinctive river-dweller and a unique and important member of the aquatic ecosystem.

This story was originally published in the October 2024 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. To subscribe, visit wonderfulwv.com.

Written by Laura Jackson

Somewhere in a cold and clear West Virginia stream, a hellbender is tucking itself under a rock and settling in to wait for dinner. It’s a good place to call home, and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources wants to be sure the state’s hellbenders stay safe. The Division can’t do it alone, though—so in partnership with other organizations and nonprofits and relying on help from the public, a conservation plan is underway.

What the Hellbender?

Eastern hellbenders are slimy, flat, and brown. While their beady eyes and natural smirk may account for their name, the salamanders—North America’s largest—are harmless. Hellbenders can grow to over two feet in length, weigh more than five pounds, and live more than 30 years. They use their small lungs for buoyancy and absorb oxygen through frills on their sides, giving rise to the nickname “lasagna lizard.” Other colorful titles bestowed upon the amphibians include “snot otter,” “Allegheny alligator,” and “water dog.” The fully aquatic salamanders are an indicator of water quality and thrive in healthy waterways. They prey on small animals like tadpoles and crayfish.

“They’re the thing of legends,” says Kevin Oxenrider, the WVDNR’s amphibian and reptile program leader, who’s actively working on hellbender conservation and public education. “They are so important for so many reasons.”

Almost 80% of the eastern hellbender population has disappeared in the past century. The salamanders are prioritized in the West Virginia’s State Wildlife Action Plan as a species of greatest conservation need, but until now, the extent of the animals’ range has been unknown. To get a clearer picture, the WVDNR has invited anglers and outdoors lovers to report encounters with these unique river residents. Anyone who finds or catches a hellbender—Oxenrider says they tend to bite anglers’ lines—can go online and submit a report of the sighting.

The project originally began with the goal of sharing facts with the public. “Folks were posting pictures on some of these West Virginia fishing pages on social media and asking, ‘What is this thing?’ Others were replying that it was a hellbender, but there was a lot of misinformation, like, ‘They eat all the trout and are poisonous.’ We needed to reach these folks and let them know that’s not the case.”

While sharing facts is vital for conservation, the social media reports also revealed new information, as many were coming from streams for which the Division hadn’t kept records in over 25 years. The news that hellbenders were present was a surprise, and Oxenrider saw the potential for teamwork with anglers.

“That’s where the citizen science project stemmed from—trying to reach out to anglers and have them assist us in the conservation process,” Oxenrider says. “And also provide information that the animals aren’t bad or poisonous. They’re not spewing out of the pits of Hell. They’re not eating the trout and the bass.”

While Oxenrider and the Division are still analyzing data, more than 150 hellbender observations have been submitted from across the state, as well as encounters with mudpuppies, another aquatic salamander. As a result, hellbenders have been documented in several streams that were not known to be occupied.

“That’s all because of anglers, the public submitting those observations to us, and us being able to verify them,” he says. “It’s been great. We’ve gained so much more knowledge than we ever would have just on our own. It’s thanks to the public that we’re getting that underway.”

Partners in Slime

Hellbender conservation is a big job, so the Division has partnered with other regional organizations in these efforts. The Wilds, a conservation center covering 10,000 acres in southeastern Ohio, and Oglebay’s Good Zoo, in Wheeling, have been collecting hellbender eggs from some of West Virginia’s most at-risk streams and hatching the amphibians in captivity, an endeavor known as head-starting. The facilities rear the salamanders up to a size that increases their chances of survival in the wild. In some cases, they’re putting animals back into streams from which they’ve been extirpated.

The Good Zoo is the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums–accredited zoo in West Virginia, and it was the first facility in the world to hatch hellbender eggs, all collected from West Virginia streams. The zoo has raised more than 2,000 hellbenders and released around 1,000 back into the wild. Its hellbenders have an above-average survival rate—in one Northern Panhandle stream, 40% survive. The norm is 25%.

In recent months, the Good Zoo and The Wilds returned more than 100 hellbenders to waterways in the Northern Panhandle. However, the release locations aren’t made public. “They’re small, and they’re easy to catch,” Oxenrider says. “Some people target hellbenders and turtles to collect them from the wild as pets. People that want to see hellbenders are going into the streams, lifting rocks, and doing things that are damaging the habitat greatly.”

Hellbenders reproduce slowly and take at least a decade to reach sexual maturity. Their young don’t have encouraging survival rates. Once they’ve made it to adulthood, however, chances improve, and they can live a long time and reproduce many times.

In addition to facilities like the Good Zoo and The Wilds, the Division has worked closely with the Monongahela National Forest to improve stream and habitat quality for the salamanders and for co-occurring species, like brook trout.

At Marshall University, researchers are using water samples to look for hellbender DNA, a technique that can hopefully eliminate the need for physically finding the animals. The results have not always matched the reports coming from anglers. “This shows us that there need to be some improvements to that methodology,” Oxenrider says, emphasizing the importance of the citizen science project in completing an accurate picture of the species’ range. Friends of the Cheat has also been looking for DNA as well as advocating for habitat improvements, like dam removal, in the Cheat River. FOC’s work not only helps the WVDNR monitor hellbender populations, but also assists with outreach.

“Working with Friends of the Cheat and the zoo is really nice,” Oxenrider says. “These organizations are great at understanding local landowners and providing information and outreach in a way that is oftentimes more effective than we could.”

Helpers Helping Hellbenders

Sedimentation is a leading threat to the species. Hellbenders select large, flat nesting rocks that are partially embedded in the river bottom. In the protected and heavily forested Monongahela National Forest, the water is clean and clear, and over time, only small amounts of sediment build up around the rocks, posing little danger. Waterways in the Northern Panhandle, however, are rarely protected. Agriculture along streams contributes to runoff, which in turn increases the sediment load in the water.

Additionally, the weather has brought its own set of threats. In the spring, excessive rain events and flash floods often occur just as the young hellbenders are trying to establish themselves. “We’ve found animals suffocated underneath rocks because they’re completely loaded by sediment on top of the rocks,” Oxenrider says. A higher temperature also warms the water, he says, and once temperatures climb above 70°, the salamanders stop eating. “It’s a combination of really terrible circumstances for the hellbender.”

Nevertheless, West Virginians can help the hellbender population by simply leaving them alone. While people want to see hellbenders, disturbing their habitat can kill them—seemingly harmless actions such as stacking rocks in the stream can be deadly to animals living beneath. More helpful is to encourage vegetation in riparian areas and along streams, Oxenrider suggests, which can both secure the banks to prevent erosion and provide shade to lower water temperatures. Keeping livestock away from waterways is also beneficial. Additionally, hellbender populations can suffer from a disease called chytrid fungus, so anglers should disinfect their gear before moving to a new stream.

Landowners, too, have a unique opportunity to help hellbenders, one that also benefits their property. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offers free technical and financial assistance to design unique conservation plans to support both hellbender recovery and the greater ecosystem. “Landowners can work with NRCS to get funding and be paid to implement practices beneficial for hellbenders on their property,” Oxenrider says. “By improving the waterways, we can get more connectivity throughout those watersheds and then release hellbenders in those areas, too.”

Conserving a species, especially one so unique and vulnerable, does indeed take a team effort. Fortunately, conscientious citizens, the WVDNR, and its partners will continue the work, collecting observations and raising young hellbenders. The future, they hope, is bright and slimy.