Day 10: Flipping Rocks

On the morning of the tenth day of my internship, I woke up before my alarm. It's not that uncommon for me to do this. I normally just close my eyes again to wait for the alarm. This morning, I immediately sat up. I hopped down from my top bunk with the zest of a twelve year old. Today we were on a quest for the second largest giant salamander in the world. To be more specific, we were in search of the Eastern Hellbender.

My work here to this point has been primarily with turtles, frogs and snakes. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to go into the field in search of those creatures. "Hellbendering" is on a whole different level for me. To sum up the experience for you, it goes something like this...
Step 1: Find a stream with big flat rocks on the bottom roughly the size of a Smart Car.
Step 2: Deadlift those rocks with a few of your friends, sometimes against the current of the stream.
Step 3: Pray while holding up that rock your friends will find a hellbender while groping the ground under said rock.

If you are lucky enough to find a hellbender, the excitement really starts. The hellbender's nickname is the "snot otter" because of the slimy secretion on their skin. They are close to impossible to get a good grip on with bare hands. Couple that with the fact that the visibility in the water after lifitng the rock is close to zero and you are starting to get an idea of the challenge.

Did I mention that they have two rows of small teeth and do a deathroll like an alligator when they bite down on something? Now you might be asking yourself, "Why would anyone in their right mind seek these salamanders out?" The answer is that they are an important indicator species for freshwater quality. The hellbender has experienced an eighty percent decline in population over recent years. In fact, the state of West Virginia has now made the eastern hellbender a protected species.

With the sun rising into the sky, we waded into our first survey site on the stream. During a previous internship, I has surveyed the same section of stream with great success in finding hellbenders. The main difference this time was the site is now very close to areas being hydraulic fracture mined for natural gas. (ie. "fracking")

I cannot point the finger directly at fracking for our lack of success in the morning survey. The other invertebrate water quality indicater species were found under some of the rocks we lifted. There are too many variables to say with a high degree of certainty why this happened. None the less, I find it a little suspicous that a section of stream which had yielded about 40 captures over the past few years was now completely vacant.

Highlight: HELLBENDERING!! It's pretty much my favorite thing ever. Our afternoon survey in a different section of the stream was much more productive. We managed to find four hellbenders, of which two were able to be wrangled into our net. Both salamanders were large females over nineteen inches long. Both Amanda (a vet student from Ohio State University) and I were able to draw blood, but I am sad to report that my one stick streak has come to an end again.

Lowlight: On completion of our survey, we began the long trek back to our vehicles. It was a matter of minutes before I stepped into a hole and fell into the stream. The scraped palms and laughter were secondary to the pain in my foot. I'm pretty sure that I now have a broken middle toe. (Don't freak out Mom, it's not so bad)

The streak is dead. Each step that I took towards home was painful. Despite all of that, this was easily the best day of my internship. I love the hellbenders!

PS: If you would like to learn more about what you can do to help preserve this very important species, visit the "Help The Hellbender" website which has great information for teachers, farmers, anglers and kids of all ages.