W
wes
Guest
<u>ADVOCATE MESSENGER</u> (Kentucky) 15 August 06 In Danger: Two-foot-long salamander calls Kentucky home (Liz Maples)
From the Kentucky River in Mercer County comes one of the largest salamanders in the Americas - the Eastern hellbender.
The salamander, which reaches 2 feet in size, has short legs and a flat head. It spends most of its days under rocks in river beds. Surveys show hellbenders have been spotted at Lock No. 6 and along the Kentucky River. The state also has hellbenders in the Cumberland and Licking rivers.
In Kentucky, reports of hellbenders often come from people who accidentally hook one while fishing or from fish kills. Otherwise, the hellbender can be an elusive creature, said John MacGregor, a herpetologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.
MacGregor has noodled for hellbenders like catfish. In clear Ohio waters, he would stick his hand along creek banks feeling around for the salamanders. He would pull at their tails and flip them into his T-shirt.
Cold, excited and at this point, wet, MacGregor would measure the animal, determine its gender and release it. MacGregor considered himself lucky if the hellbender got nervous and vomitted on him. This way he could tell what it had been eating. The hellbender's diet consists mainly of crawfish, but it also eats darters and other small fish.
This is MacGregor's idea of a good time, but that was Ohio and just a weekend outing, not a scientific survey. Gathering solid data about hellbenders in Kentucky would take divers, and the waters in the Kentucky River are just too murky for such a study, MacGregor said.
In other states, the hellbender is listed as critically imperiled or imperiled. In places where the hellbender lives in clean water, it appears the species is in decline.
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums Web site calls the hellbender the canary in the coal mine for water quality. MacGregor said he would disagree with this statement because there is evidence of hellbenders living in all kinds of water here in Kentucky. However, the salamander is on Kentucky's list of species that are of major concern because it is in decline in other parts of the country.
MacGregor said, although a comprehensive count is impossible, he still receives five to 10 reports a year of hellbenders. Sometimes in eastern Kentucky, he sees hellbenders nailed to trees like catfish that have been skinned. Here, they are sometimes called legged catfish and are often confused for mudpuppies.
http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=24108&format=html
From the Kentucky River in Mercer County comes one of the largest salamanders in the Americas - the Eastern hellbender.
The salamander, which reaches 2 feet in size, has short legs and a flat head. It spends most of its days under rocks in river beds. Surveys show hellbenders have been spotted at Lock No. 6 and along the Kentucky River. The state also has hellbenders in the Cumberland and Licking rivers.
In Kentucky, reports of hellbenders often come from people who accidentally hook one while fishing or from fish kills. Otherwise, the hellbender can be an elusive creature, said John MacGregor, a herpetologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.
MacGregor has noodled for hellbenders like catfish. In clear Ohio waters, he would stick his hand along creek banks feeling around for the salamanders. He would pull at their tails and flip them into his T-shirt.
Cold, excited and at this point, wet, MacGregor would measure the animal, determine its gender and release it. MacGregor considered himself lucky if the hellbender got nervous and vomitted on him. This way he could tell what it had been eating. The hellbender's diet consists mainly of crawfish, but it also eats darters and other small fish.
This is MacGregor's idea of a good time, but that was Ohio and just a weekend outing, not a scientific survey. Gathering solid data about hellbenders in Kentucky would take divers, and the waters in the Kentucky River are just too murky for such a study, MacGregor said.
In other states, the hellbender is listed as critically imperiled or imperiled. In places where the hellbender lives in clean water, it appears the species is in decline.
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums Web site calls the hellbender the canary in the coal mine for water quality. MacGregor said he would disagree with this statement because there is evidence of hellbenders living in all kinds of water here in Kentucky. However, the salamander is on Kentucky's list of species that are of major concern because it is in decline in other parts of the country.
MacGregor said, although a comprehensive count is impossible, he still receives five to 10 reports a year of hellbenders. Sometimes in eastern Kentucky, he sees hellbenders nailed to trees like catfish that have been skinned. Here, they are sometimes called legged catfish and are often confused for mudpuppies.
http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=24108&format=html