Card #086 · Amphibians
Hellbender
Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Rare VU · Vulnerable
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Urodela · Family Cryptobranchidae
- Range
- Eastern United States
- Size
- 30–74 cm (12–29 in)
- Weight
- 1.5–2.5 kg (3.3–5.5 lb)
- Lifespan
- 25–30 yrs
- Diet
- Crayfish, small fish
Most Notable
It has lungs but barely uses them. Almost all its oxygen crosses the loose frilled folds of skin along its flanks, so it needs cold, fast, well oxygenated water and cannot tolerate silt.
Locals call it the snot otter or the lasagna lizard, but its real worth is as a gauge. A river that still holds hellbenders is a river that has stayed cold, clear and clean, and silt washed down from logging, dams and farm runoff has quietly emptied many streams that once held them.
At up to 74 cm it is the largest salamander in North America, outsized only by the giant salamanders of China and Japan, its closest relatives.
It spends its life under one large flat rock in fast water, and a male will guard the eggs laid beneath his stone until they hatch.
The Ozark hellbender, the subspecies of the White and Spring river systems, has been listed as federally endangered in the United States since 2011.
Range: Cold Appalachian and Ozark streams, eastern USA.