You never forget your first time seeing a giant salamander, according to Andy Hill. He was a teenager, standing thigh-high in the Watauga River outside Boone, North Carolina, casting a line on an early fall day when he saw his first eastern hellbender. The salamander stretched 2 feet long and was camouflaged among rocks beneath the clear water.
“You never lose your sense of wonder and otherworldliness when you see one,” said Hill, who now works as the Watauga Riverkeeper for MountainTrue , a nonprofit protecting natural ecosystems in western North Carolina, home to part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The ancient species, which evolved on the supercontinent Pangaea and outlived the dinosaurs, was submitted for federal protection in December by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. If the proposal is adopted after a period of public comment running into February, the creatures will be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) is Pennsylvania’s official amphibian , under legislation signed into law April 23, 2019 , by then-Gov.
Tom Wolf. It’s one of 22 species of salamanders found in the Keystone State , where it’s listed as a species of concern. Their population across the United States has rapidly declined in recent decades; dams, industry and even flooding worsened by climate change have threatened their habitat and ability to reproduce and find food.
Today, just 12% of eastern hellbenders are success.
