Living in Central Pennsylvania is a creature so unique, so prehistoric looking, it’s hard to believe that it exists. Some say its grotesque, others become intrigued by its mysterious nature.
   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 anywhere 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.
   Disbelief? It’s true, but the reason the hellbender isn’t seen or commonly known is that it is a very shy and secretive animal. It is fully aquatic and can be found in clean flowing rivers and streams that have lots of large rocks or boulders.
   “They live in streams that have a moderate gradient ... a really good flow to the current," says Dr. Peter Petokas, a biologist at Lycoming College who has studied the animals in this area for two years. “For that reason you would not find them in the slower streams that are typical along the coast.”
   “Hellbenders have a flattened body, paddle-like tail and small eyes. They have lungs, but breathe entirely through their skin and almost never leave the water. They have fleshy folds of skin on the sides and backs of their arms and legs that are filled with capillaries. These folds are used for oxygen uptake,” said Dr. W. Jeffrey Humphries of Clemson University in South Carolina.
   Humphries said they were first described by Sonninni (Sonninni and Latreille, 1801) and called, in French, “la salamandre des monts Alleganis.” 
   Here they are most active at night, or just when the sun just goes down. Petokas said in this area they usually are active for the first couple hours after sundown. However scientists found in other states that the hellbender is most active during the day.
   “Otherwise they remain hidden underneath large rocks and in rock crevices,” Petokas said.
   Their diet consists of mostly crayfish, worms and insects, and sometimes small fish like minnows.
   Humphries says hellbenders have few predators as adults, except humans, but young hellbenders are eaten by fish, snakes and other hellbenders.

   Petokas said he conducted hellbender surveys in the North Branch of the Susquehanna River for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and has worked with the animals casually for about 15 years total. He says the animals breed during the last week of August and the first two weeks of September.
   “During the breeding season, they become more active during the day. The males tend to congregate into to groups around rocks, in an attempt to entice females,” he said. “The male selects the nest rock under which to breed.”
   He said the males guard the eggs after they are fertilized and will fight viciously for the females. He has seen scars on some the hellbenders from biting and fighting.
   The females deposit between 200 to 500 marblesized eggs.

   Humphries said the major myth about the hellbender is that they are poisonous.
   ‘‘That is a very common misconception. They may be distasteful but there is no evidence that they are poisonous,’’ Petokas said.
   ‘‘Another legend is the misconception is that they bite. Very rarely has anyone ever been bitten by one,’’ he said.
   The hellbender has two rows of teeth in the upper part of the mouth and one row on the bottom. They are very small sharp. They grab their prey with their teeth and swallow it whole.
   ‘‘They have a very thick mucus and when you catch them they increase the mucus secretion,’’ Petokas said. ‘‘They can become very slippery.’’
   ‘‘In reality, their skin secretions are somewhat toxic, but they’re not dangerous unless you put a hellbender in your mouth,’’ Humphries said.
   Another common misconception is that they crawl on land. 
   ‘‘Most people think they come out of the water and crawl on the rocks, but they don’t. They are always on the bottom,’’ Petokas said.
   Hellbender bones have been found in middens — the trash deposits left around American Indian villages. Scientists think they could have been used as food.
   ‘‘There is no other possible use we can think of. It’s not like a turtle shell that can be used for a rattle or a bowl,’’ Petokas said. 
   He said he has heard of some people who do eat them today or in the recent past.
   He said he recently received an e-mail from colleagues saying they found a family living in the mountains who eat hellbenders. It said they fileted the flanks off the backs and cook them.
   A retired professor at St. Bonaventure University in New York wrote in a letter that when he first came to the university in the 1950s, they held a hellbender feast once a year.
   The hellbenders are commonly referred to as a mudpuppy, but that is incorrect. The mudpuppy is another species of salamander.
   ‘‘There are no mudpuppies where you guys are. They are found in the Allegheny and Ohio drainages, but never got into the Susquehanna,’’ Hules said. ‘‘On rare occasion, some may have caught one (mudpuppy) but it is not native to Susquehanna.’’
   Mudpuppies are recognized by red frilly external gills. Hellbenders do not have gills and are much larger than mudpuppies.

   ‘‘They do not have any federal protection,” Humphries said.
   ‘‘They should be in a category of at least special concern,’’ Dr. Petokas said.
   In this state, especially, there is virtually no protection.
   “Currently a licensed fishermen can take two hellbenders a day. There is no reason to do it and we are battling that,’’ Dr. Petokas said.
   Petokas and Rodgers working to obtain a grant from the state Fish and Boat Commission to study the hellbender’s distribution and status in the tributaries of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
   The two use scuba diving equipment to find and study hellbenders.
   They can live in up to 30 feet of water in what Petokas calls scour holes, which most of the time are found around bridges. Such holes contain large rocks and bedrock, the perfect hiding place for hellbenders.
   "The water can be anywhere from 6 inches to 30 feet deep.’’ Petokas said. ‘‘Adults we find here in the deeper water. In New York, that’s not true; we find them where it can only be a foot deep.’’
   According to the grant application ‘‘occurrence, distribution, and habitat and water quality data will be collected, along with population demographic data and an assessment of reproductive success and recruitment. Project results will provide information needed for management and conservation of the eastern hellbender in Pennsylvania.’’
   The studies are being planned for June through September of 2006.
   The hellbenders found in the field studies will be characterized by population size, density, age structure, sex ratio and recruitment. 
   The hellbenders that are captured in the study will be fitted with a “passive integrated transponder,” which is a tiny chip, and tags. They will use GPS coordinates to record movement and population.
   ‘‘They’re completely harmless and are a really important part of river ecosystems. If you see one, consider yourself very lucky,’’ Humphries said.
   ‘‘I think people who live within the range of this ’living dinosaur’ should be really proud that they’re still doing pretty well in some streams. Just like many other species, though, we really need to pay more attention to our environment and make sure they remain here for our kids and grandkids to see.’’

           Hellbenders have folds of skin on their sides, top photo, that
           enhance the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in water.
           In center photo, local researcher Jim Rogers holds a small adult
           captured while scuba diving Nov. 4. Above, Dr. Peter Petokas,
           a biologist at Lycoming College, readies his diving equipment on
           Monday for a hellbender search in Loyalsock Creek. Hellbender
           larvae hatch this time of year, requiring researchers to scour cold
           creeks to find evidence of reproduction, which has declined
           sharply.

     A hellbender is stretched out on a measuring board, top photo. At 24 At 24
     inches, it was unusually large,  even for the second-largest salamander
     species in the world. Above, a hellbender’s head pokes out from a
     crevice between two large rocks. The photo gives a good idea of why
     the mudbrown, bottom-dwelling creatures are seldom seen even by
     experienced outdoors folks.

Hellbender facts
(Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis)

• The hellbender is one of the largest salamanders in the world. The giant salamander found in China and Japan can grow to be 5 feet long and weigh up to 100 pounds. The giant salamander is critically endangered.

• Adult hellbenders can range in lengths from 11 to 29 inches.

• Males select the nest rock and guard the nest after the eggs have been fertilized.

• Common names people use for hellbenders:  waterdog, mud devil, mudpuppy and alligator, also know as Allegheny alligator.

• There are two species of hellbender in North American — the eastern hellbender and the Ozark hellbender, which is found only in southcentral Missouri and rivers in Arkanas.

• Hellbenders have lungs, but do not use them to breath. It is the only species of salamander in North America to do so. Scientist think that they may use their lungs for buoyancy.

• It is hard to tell the sex of a hellbender.  The male and female look very much alike. Only during breeding season, they can sometimes be told apart.

• Hellbenders have two sets of small teeth located on the upper and lower jaws.

• Hellbenders loose their gills when they reach two years of age. The organs are absorbed into the body. They then breath thorough blood vessels in their skin.

• Hellbenders breed in the late summer and early autumn. The eggs stake 4 to 6 weeks to hatch.

• Scientist believe hellbenders can live 35 years or more.

• Contrary to myth, hellbenders are not poisonous and are completely harmless.

Jim “Toolbox” Reynolds of Forksville, left, and Dr. Peter
Petokas, right, a biologist at Lycoming College, head across
Loyalsock Creek Monday to a pool about 11 feet deep where
they found several hellbenders. It was cold work in their wetsuits and scuba gear. The water was 38 degrees.