The Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) is Kentucky’s largest salamander, one of 57 native amphibian species, which includes 35 salamanders and 22 frogs and toads.
They live in high-quality shallow, rocky streams with cool, clear water, which is critical to their survival.
Young have gills until about age two, but adults breathe entirely through their skin, which contains numerous folds to increase oxygen absorption. They spend their entire lives in water.
The Eastern Hellbender is a long-lived species and may live for up to 30 years, growing to a length of 24 inches. They are not aggressive, or poisonous.
Coloration varies from brownish to yellowish, sometimes with dark blotches, their bodies are broad and flat, with four stumpy legs, tiny eyes and a long tail.
Adults spend most of their time under large, flat rocks. Larval hellbenders frequent gravel beds and juveniles hide beneath larger rocks. Males excavate nests and guard fertilized eggs.
They can swim, but often walk along stream bottoms, especially at night, when feeding on small fish, fish eggs, larval fish, and mostly crayfish.
In Kentucky, the Eastern Hellbender is listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need.
The other subspecies is the Ozark Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi), designated a federally endangered species in Missouri in 2021, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Ozark Hellbender is native to the mountain streams of the Ozark Plateau in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.
The geographic distribution of the Eastern Hellbender is streams and rivers in 15 states, from New York to Mississippi. Its current range is unchanged from its historic range, but its abundance has dramatically declined in recent decades.
This is primarily due to degraded water quality, increased sediments, altered water flows, amphibian chytrid fungus, illegal collection, and disturbance of nesting areas.
The good news is Kentucky, and neighboring states have started captive rearing programs that will hopefully reverse the population declines.
Officials from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) said they released Eastern Hellbenders for the first time in 2022, after several years of raising them in a lab in conjunction with researchers from Purdue University. KDFWR staff collected egg masses in Kentucky streams. Biologists estimated that the survival of young in the lab is 50 times what they observed in the wild.
Stream anglers and paddlers who encounter an Eastern Salamander in Kentucky waters are asked to e-mail John MacGregor or Zach Couch at the KDFWR with location information and a photograph, if possible.