Description: Eastern Hellbenders on average are 11.5–20 inches with the longest recorded was a female of 29.1 inches. Eastern Hellbenders are large, stout-bodied, fully aquatic salamanders. They are the largest salamanders in North America; adults measure nearly 30 inches long and weigh up to 4 lbs. Their heads are large and flattened with small, widely separated eyes. They are typically brown, but can range from gray, to yellowish brown to almost black. Their backs have markings that may be either darker or lighter than their skin color. Their bellies are lighter and occasionally may also be sparsely spotted. Fleshy skin folds run down both sides of their bodies and their tails have a fleshy flap of skin above and below. Juveniles have external gills, which they lose upon growing between 4–5 inches long (at approximately 18 months of age).

Habitat: Eastern Hellbenders are an aquatic species that prefer clear, fast-flowing, well-oxygenated streams and rivers in southwest Virginia. The stream bottom should be comprised of gravel and sand with an abundance of large flat rocks.

Range: Eastern Hellbenders range through much of the Appalachian Mountains, from southern New York to Northern Georgia. In Virginia, they are only found in the southwest corner of the state.

Found in these States: GA | IN | KY | MO | NC | NY | OH | PA | PA | TN | VA | WV

Diet: Adult hellbenders feed primarily on crayfish and occasionally small bottom dwelling fish. As juveniles, they are known to eat a variety of aquatic invertebrates. Consumption of trout is often grossly over exaggerated by anglers as their overall impacts to trout populations are negligible.

Reproduction: Early in their breeding season, male hellbenders stake out and guard large, flat rocks in stream and river bottoms. They excavate under these large rocks to build their nest. A female will then enter the nest and lay her eggs in a single long strand, which looks similar to a string of pearls (an average clutch size is about 300 eggs, but can vary from 200 – 1400 eggs). The male will then fertilize the eggs and force the female out of the nest. He will guard the eggs and young until the following spring. Hatching occurs about 4 – 8 weeks after fertilization, depending on water temperature.

Status: Hellbender populations have been declining since the 1970s. In most states within their range, hellbenders are listed as rare, threatened, or endangered. Since 2011, the Ozark Hellbender subspecies, C. a. bishopi, has been protected as a federally Endangered species with its population having declined to 600 individuals. The Missouri population of the Eastern Hellbender was listed as federally Endangered in 2019, while the eastern populations were found not warranted for listing. However, reports have shown Eastern Hellbenders have significantly declined or completely disappeared from many streams that they historically occupied. Although some Eastern Hellbender populations appear to be doing well, declines are indeed occurring in many locations throughout their range.

The declines of Eastern Hellbenders can largely be attributed to the degradation of stream quality, which is caused by the damming of rivers, water pollution, and siltation of streams. Dams eliminate free-flowing sections of rivers and produce low oxygen conditions on the river bottom. Toxic chemicals, such as untreated sewage and chemical runoff from lawns, fields, and parking lots pollute rivers and streams, impacting water quality and the health of hellbenders. Like other amphibians, hellbenders “breathe” through their permeable skin, so any toxic substance in the water can enter their bodies and cause them harm. Siltation is the buildup of sediment on the bottom of a stream. Excess sediment enters streams from various human disturbances to the soil, such as the removal of streamside vegetation, logging, poor forestry practices, and erosion from farms and housing developments. Siltation affects hellbender survival by burying the large rocks that hellbenders depend on for reproduction, suffocating their eggs, filling in hiding places of their young, and killing the crayfish and other invertebrates that they feed on.

Other threats to hellbenders include: collection pressure from the pet trade and people killing them. Anglers using live bait such as crayfish and worms may sometimes catch a hellbender. They will often cut the line or kill the hellbender. Another reason people may kill them is the unfortunate misbelief that they are poisonous, when they are in fact harmless.

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