Water pollution, fungus threaten the hellbender

Ozark variety lives in only 2 states

The Ozark hellbender is in trouble.

The salamander, which can grow longer than two feet, was listed last month as one of the 10 species most threatened by freshwater pollution in the United States.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the Ozark hellbender to its endangered species list, saying its population had declined by 75 percent since the 1980s.

The Ozark hellbender has been around for six million years, but now fewer than 800 remain in the wild, said Jeff Briggler, a Morrilton native who’s a herpetologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Only about 200 of those 800 Ozark hellbenders live in Arkansas, said Kelly Irwin, herpetologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The only place in Arkansas where hellbenders can be found is the Eleven Point River in Randolph County, he said. A century ago, hellbenders probably lived in several north Arkansas rivers, Irwin said.

Hellbenders are the largest salamanders in North America. The prehistoric looking amphibians live in crevices between rocks and under boulders in flowing rivers. There are two subspecies: Ozark and eastern. Ozark hellbenders live only in Missouri and Arkansas. Eastern hellbenders live in16 states from Missouri and Mississippi to New York. The eastern hellbender isn’t endangered but its status is under review. Briggler said the population of eastern hellbenders isn’t known because some states don’t monitor it.

The Ozark hellbender is slightly smaller than the eastern hellbender and has black blotches on its body, Irwin said.

Hellbenders have a wide, flat head, tiny eyes and folds of skin. They have no gills and shouldn’t be confused with mudpuppies, said Irwin. Hellbenders get oxygen through their skin. Their nearest relatives are the giant salamanders of Japan and China, which can grow to five feet in length and weigh 100 pounds.

In November, the Endangered Species Coalition named the Ozark hellbender to its top 10 list in a study called “Water Woes: How Dams, Diversions, Dirty Water and Drought Put America’s Wildlife at Risk.”

The commission’s study cites damming of the White River from 1911 through the 1970s, which created lakes in what had been a free-flowing river.

“Hellbenders cannot persist in reservoirs,” said Irwin. “They have to have flowing water, well oxygenated water.”

Irwin said farming practices and development have also contributed runoff to area rivers, and that causes sediment to fill gaps between rocks where hellbenders live and lay their eggs.

“They’ve got to have large cover rocks to hang out under or cracked bedrock,” he said. “They primarily feed on crayfish and small fishes.”

But there’s another problem, said Briggler. Amphibians around the world are dying from a fungus, and this particular fungus is detrimental to the Ozark hellbender.

The problem may have started in the 1930s when companies sold African clawed frogs as part of a pregnancy test kit, said Briggler.

A woman who thought she might be pregnant could inject some of her urine under the skin of a female African clawed frog, according to an article from BBC News. If the woman was pregnant, a hormone in her urine would cause the frog to lay eggs within 12 hours.

The frogs were shipped all over the United States, Europe and Australia from the 1930s until the 1960s. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a chytrid fungus that grows on the frog’s skin, apparently made it into waterways when the frogs were released or perhaps flushed down toilets after they were used for testing, said Briggler.

“Nobody knew this disease existed until 1998,” he said. The fungus was first noted in Missouri in 1969.

Although hellbenders dieor lose limbs because of the fungus, it appears some of them survive, said Briggler. That may offer hope for survival of the species.

Researchers in Missouri are hatching hellbender eggs in an attempt to revive the population. Eastern hellbenders are being hatched at the Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery in Branson, which is a Missouri Department of Conservation facility. Ozark hellbenders are being hatched at the Ron Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation at the St. Louis Zoo.

Last year, Missouri researchers bred hellbenders in captivity for the first time, resulting in 150 little hellbenders.

“This year was an off-thechart year, getting 2,500 babies,” said Briggler. “Within the next three to six years, we’ll release over 3,000 hellbenders back into the wild. We just hope they can adapt to that disease. If they don’t that can be a problem.”

Ozark hellbenders will account for about 2,500 of those 3,000 salamanders that will be released within six years, he said. Raising the young for a few years in captivity will givethem a head start on survival and make them less vulnerable to predators, said Briggler.

Hellbenders mature at 5 to 8 years of age and can live to be 30 years old in the wild, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

In Missouri, Ozark hellbenders can be found in the Current, Jack’s Fork and Eleven Point rivers, according to the commission’s study.

A few years ago, some Ozark hellbenders could also be found in the Spring River in northeast Arkansas, said Irwin.

In the 1960s, there were probably 12,000 Ozark hellbenders still in the wild, said Briggler.

Irwin said he’s “guardedly optimistic” about the recovery of hellbender populations. Environmental actions need to be taken to reduce sedimentation and runoff, he said.

Clearcutting and farming operations dump sediment into rivers, filling in the cracks in rocks where hellbenders live.

“It also makes the rivers run shallower and warmer,” Irwin said.

Irwin said the hellbender needs to be protected because it’s part of Arkansas’ natural heritage. When a species dies out, it affects other species.

“It serves an ecosystem function in some capacity,” he said.

Irwin said some people don’t see any use in the hellbender because they don’t fish for it or want one for a pet.

“It’s not some cuddly, cute, lovable animal, but it’s unique to the region, and it’s found nowhere else on Earth,” he said. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone. I think Arkansans should take pride in all of their wildlife, even if it’s not considered a game species, or a warm and fuzzy species.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/26/2012

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