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THINK YOU'VE FOUND A HELLBENDER?

Contact Dr. Peter Petokas at 321-4006 or petokas@lycoming.edu.

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Have you ever found a hellbender in an area stream?

No, but I'd like to find one. No, and I hope I never do. Yes, but I didn't bother it. Yes, and I killed it. I didn't even know we had them here.

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Fisherman from the early days of Pennsylvania's history used to snarl their lips at hellbenders and held hunts to try to eliminate them from the fishing waters.

Back then, the misunderstood creatures were called "devil dogs" or "Allegheny alligators."

Folklore revealed tales from fisherman who claimed hellbenders would drive away or eat game fish or smear their fishing lines with slime, hindering their attempts to catch legitimate fish. People also thought hellbenders were aggressive and their bites, poisonous.

With beliefs such as these spreading across the state, it's easy to see how hellbenders were persecuted.

Studies turn the tides

Today, Lycoming College professor of biology Dr. Peter Petokas is driven by a passion to promote awareness of these shy and harmless salamanders. He studies their populations, habitats and, now, a disease that is affecting them.

Petokas is beginning his third year of studying the eastern hellbender in this area. The study launched when he received a grant to work through the college's Cleanwater Institute.

The eastern hellbender is the one of the largest species of salamander in the world and the only salamander of its size in North America.

A hellbender can grow to lengths of 29 inches and weigh up to 5 pounds. Only the giant salamander, found in China and Japan, is larger. Those can grow up to 5 feet long and weigh up to 100 pounds.

The hellbender is thought to live from 30 to 50 years, possibly longer, and is believed to have existed for millions of years.

Hellbenders are native to streams within the Allegheny, Ohio and Susquehanna river drainages of Pennsylvania.

The animal isn't often seen or commonly known simply because it is very shy and secretive. It is fully aquatic and can be found in clean flowing rivers and streams that have lots of large rocks or boulders.

The study has brought more information about the species in the areas that Petokas has covered.

"We covered a very large area and were able to determine the current distribution of the eastern hellbender in the West Branch watershed," he said. "Population size and other factors, like reproduction, were less definitive due to the relatively short period of study and the difficulty of catching the salamanders. Nonetheless, we see large numbers of healthy individuals of varying sizes, which is a good indication that most hellbender populations are stable."

Petokas said the study now is beginning to focus more on the population dynamics of the species and where they live.

"The salamanders only occur in what appears to be high-quality habitat, and we want to determine which features of the habitat they prefer. We'll be examining factors such as light intensity, water velocity, water depth, dissolved oxygen, temperature, rock size and distribution, and riparian cover," he said.

Hands-on education

At a recent outing, Petokas and two interns from Lycoming College - Mike Russo and Brent Hile - were in Pine Creek to collect data and specimens.

The expedition also gave Jersey Shore High School students from the Boating and Fly Fishing Club, an up-close and personal view of a hellbender. The students traveled down Pine Creek from Blackwell and docked their canoes and kayaks for a day of education in the field in late May.

Petokas told the students about the species, their habitats and what they found during the studies. He also discussed a disease that is affecting hellbenders that live in local streams.

"Amphibian chytrid fungus was first identified in the late 1990s as a pathogen of amphibians by Joyce Longcore from the University of Maine and her colleagues. Longcore reported that the fungus was the cause of mortality of Australian and Central American frogs. Chytrid was first identified in hellbenders in Missouri in 2006 by the Missouri Department of Conservation," he said.

In 2007, Petokas discovered that chytrid was infecting hellbenders.

"To determine if chytrid is present, the hellbender's skin is swabbed to collect DNA-containing cells and spores. Chytrid identification is done through DNA extraction and PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing. We hired an independent lab to perform this task. Like DNA fingerprinting, it is a very precise technique for determining the presence of chytrid DNA."

This expensive process allocates a chunk of funding. Petokas cannot test the DNA but instead must send it away to Colorado. Each test can cost as much as $25.

So far, the study only has found the disease in Loyalsock Township.

Petokas said the study has found an increase in the hellbenders' mortality rate in one stream and are concerned about the emergence of chytrid fungus.

He stresses that, still, many populations of hellbenders are not experiencing a massive die-off but rather are living at stable numbers.

Catch and release

After the discussion, Petokas led the students in a venture down Pine Creek. Russo, Hile and Petokas wore snorkeling gear and took a cold dip in the creek to look for hellbenders.

Usually, the group would use full diving gear but, on this day, the water was shallow enough to allow for just a snorkel.

They also used a net to try to "kick out" the animal and grab other creatures such as hellgrammites, crayfish - which are hellbenders' food of choice - stoneflies and darters.

The best method to catching the hellbenders was to snorkel and use a peevey, which helps to lift the huge rocks where the hellbenders live.

When a hellbender was captured, the crew would mark the exact spot from which it came with bobbers attached to lead sinkers, which are numbered to coincide with number of the net of the captive hellbender. The creatures later would be returned to where they were found.

When out of the water, each hellbender was kept in a shallow pan filled with creek water. Each was measured with a large PVC pipe fashioned with a metric ruler inside, then weighed.

Skin patterns were described and recorded - along with number of toes - and a check was made for nematodes. These parasites live under hellbenders' skin and do not seem to adversely affect them.

A photo is taken for a file, then each hellbender is checked for a PIT tag, which is the same sort of identifier used for microchips in dogs and cats. A PIT tag measures from 1 millimeter to 10 mm and is encapsulated in glass. Each comes with a unique number, so every hellbender caught by Petokas can be identified.

One of the hellbenders from that specific area caught that day had been caught three times before during the study. Two were never caught before and were injected with a tag to be put on file.

The crew also measures the velocity of the water and the measurements of the rock under which each hellbender is found.

More funds needed

Even though the grant for the hellbenders study has ended, Petokas said that he and his interns will continue working.

The disease could be somewhere in a remote area in the mountains, creating a mortality rate, and no one would ever know if the area wasn't being studied, he said.

"We are continuing the study to provide a more long-term perspective on hellbender population dynamics," he said. "We have applied for additional funding to continue the study for three more years and to assess the occurrence and impact of amphibian chytrid fungus on populations of the Eastern hellbender."

He would like to be able to secure more funding to do a broader scale study of the animals' DNA and that of other amphibians across the state.