#ozark hellbender

This is an Ozark Hellbender having a little jaunt around her enclosure! She’s part of the breeding efforts at my zoo for this highly endangered subspecies of the largest amphibian in North America!

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Saint Louis Zoo is the only institution in the world that’s breeding Ozark hellbenders, and they’re doing it well. Since 2011 their program’s parent hellbenders have laid more than 6,500 eggs that have resulted in the births of more than 5,100 tiny hellbender hatchlings.

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Winning endangered status for an animal species is no easy feat these days, what with the backlash from those who portray all efforts at conservation as job-killers and budget busters. However, in early October of this year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service showed the Ozark hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishop) the respect it deserves, by granting it protection under the Endangered Species Act. Unlike most other ESA decisions, the directive stopped short of safeguarding the animal’s habitats in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, for fear it would guide poachers straight to their home territory. In the words of the FWS press release, “the service determined that designating critical habitat under the ESA for the Ozark hellbender is not prudent because the designation would require publication of detailed descriptions of hellbender locations and habitat, making illegal collection for the pet trade more likely.”