Hellbender: It's not for dinner

Hellbender: It's not for dinner

By Kevin Kelly
kkelly@nky.com
April 13, 2010

CAMPBELL COUNTY
Jimmy Blackaby was fishing with a buddy Saturday afternoon near the Visalia bridge when he pulled something out of the Licking River that he recalls seeing only one other time. It was a funny bite, the Morning View resident said. It pecked and pecked and pecked and finally I just got tired of it pecking. When I set the hook, I
thought, well, it's a catfish. As you could imagine, whenever we pulled that thing up, whoa, this ain't a catfish, man.

The nearly two-foot-long creature on the end of Blackaby's line was an eastern hellbender, a rare and most would say unsightly salamander whose populations are being studied in Kentucky. As Blackaby discovered, the eastern hellbender fancies crayfish and secretes mucus when handled.

Sometimes called a snot otter or grampus, it has a flat head and body, elongated tail and stubby legs. Those features make the eastern hellbender well suited to live under rocks in the clean, flowing water that it prefers since it breathes through its skin. I look at them and see an animal that's superbly adapted for where it lives, said Greg Lipps, a herpetologist from Delta, Ohio.

Lipps is heading up an ongoing eastern hellbender survey in Kentucky with the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR). There's never been a formal survey like it before in the state, he said.

"There`s been a lot of interest recently looking at hellbender conservation because where surveys have been done we've noticed very large declines", Lipps said. Kentucky does not have its own endangered species list, he said, but Ohio's Division of Wildlife lists the eastern hellbender as endangered.

For the survey, Lipps scoured historical records on eastern hellbenders in Kentucky and found 52 documented occurrences through the years. Fieldwork began in July 2008.

The plan of attack has been to visit all of these places, Lipps said. And the survey technique is just extremely labor intensive. I always like to tell people there's no rock too big for a hellbender, only rocks you can't lift. The eastern hellbenders, which are harmless to humans and often confused with mud puppies, are measured and examined for abnormalities and disease. A small microchip also is placed under the skin of each in an effort to track them.

Of 27 sites surveyed in the Licking River and Kentucky River watersheds, two have turned up eastern hellbenders. The survey aims to help fill in gaps throughout the eastern hellbender's range where limited or no data exists about how they're doing. The data could lead the eastern hellbender closer to the federal endangered species list.

The other purpose is can we identify where good hellbender populations are and what potential threat there may be and what actions can we take to conserve them, Lipps said. Anglers who catch one are advised to remove the hook and put it back in the water. If the hook can't be removed, Lipps suggests contacting the KDFWR.

Blackaby's catch prompted a visit from John MacGregor, a herpetologist with the KDFWR. Blackaby placed the eastern hellbender, which swallowed the hook, in a fish basket in the river and called the department about his catch. MacGregor collected the animal Monday and took it to the Peter W. Pfeiffer Fish Hatchery north of Frankfort.

"It stayed alive," Blackaby said. "It was in good shape."

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