Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - January/February 2023 - 34

SPECIES OF SPECIAL CONCERN
HELLBENDER LOVE-
Meet Pennsylvania's Official State Amphibian
photo-Michelle R. Herman
by Linda Stager
H
ave you ever seen a gigantic salamander in a pristine
stream and wondered what it was?
Meet Pennsylvania's Eastern Hellbender,
Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, the largest-bodied salamander in
North America and our official state amphibian.
This distinctive salamander has been around for perhaps
500,000 years or more (its ancestors go back at least 100
million years). And, it's unforgettable once you see it. It has
a dull greenish-brown flat body and head with small beady
eyes and loose, slippery skin. Its squat body has a long tail for
quick escapes, but they rarely swim and instead crawl along the
creek bottom. It's also big-growing to an adult length of 12- to
29-inches.
Dr. Peter Petokas with the Clean Water Institute at Lycoming
College, Williamsport, is a locally known expert on hellbenders
and has been one of their most persistent champions.
Petokas has been studying these unusual and fascinating
animals. He considers them unique among salamanders because
of their huge size and physical characteristics. " They have lots of
skin folds for gas exchange and a flat body form that allows them
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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater
to squeeze beneath the big rocks where they live. And, they are the
sentinel species for water quality. The environment must be just
perfect for them, or they are not going to survive. They are found
in large streams and rivers, where the water is very clean with very
little fine sediment in it. There must be good current and really
large rock slabs, big rocks that these animals hide under. That's
where they live, " said Petokas.
According to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
(PFBC), Pennsylvania has more hellbenders and occupied
waterways than most other states. But, like in other areas of the
country, hellbender populations are likely nowhere near historical
sizes. Petokas points out that historic practices like logging, mining,
excavation, and general runoff over the last century have released
fine sediment into streams burying the rocks that hellbenders need.
Petokas estimates that 90- to 95-percent of the population in
Pennsylvania may have disappeared. Encouragingly, recent surveys
in Pennsylvania have shown that the hellbender may be in a larger
portion of the state than previously thought. The species has also
recently been documented in counties it was not historically known
to occur.
Currently, there are only a handful of hellbender populations
that Petokas monitors in northcentral Pennsylvania, and although
he doesn't disclose specific locations, he does say those populations
are in Pennsylvania's largest river system. Part of his monitoring
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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - January/February 2023

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