The Hellbender is an aquatic salamander. The hellbender varies from 11-29 inches long, but most Hellbenders are 11-20 inches long. They range from 7-15 pounds. It has loosely folded skin, which it uses for respiration because it has no gills and its lungs are for buoyancy in the water. It has an extremely flattened head. It undergoes incomplete metamorphosis, so adult Hellbenders lack eyelids and retain one pair of the gill slits. Female Hellbenders are larger than the male Hellbenders.

 

The body color varies from yellowish-brownish to almost black with faint dark or light spots scattered over its body. Young Hellbenders lose their external gills when they reach about 4 or 5 inches in length. Hellbenders prefer fast-flowing streams and rivers with rocky bottoms, clear of logs and debris. Hellbenders are found in southern New York, Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, and extreme southern Indiana, most of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Northern Alabama, Georgia, western North Carolina, and large portions of the Missouri, Ohio, and the Mississippi River.

 

Hellbenders are at the point where they are not really threatened but they are near threatened. If there is continued agricultural and acidic runoff from large-scale mining operations it could contribute to the extinction of the Hellbender. The biggest threat to them is the impoundment of rivers and streams for recreational lakes and hydroelectric facilities. The Hellbender is strictly carnivorous. It mainly eats crayfish but will also eat insects, worms, and fish. The Hellbender has a variety of predators including turtles, water snakes, muskellunge, and humans. Sometimes, if one Hellbender is bigger than the other is, cannibalism occurs. During breeding season, they can be very violent.

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Author: Dane G

Published: 2/2007

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Sources:

"Hellbenders range", 1/26/07, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc "Hellbender photo", 1/26/07 Jeff Humphries Copyright 2006 The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume H "Hellbenders", World Book, Inc. Copyright 2000 "Hellbender" 2/1/07, copyright 2006 Hellbender