Download Hellbender - Endangered Species Coalition

Endangered Species Coalition 2016 Top 10 Report Nominating Form
General Information
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Deadline: July 29, 2016
Nominating Organizations: Please use this Column to Provide the Requested Information
Organization & Web address
Contact name for species info
Address
Email & phone
Communications staff contact name
Email & phone
Center for Biological Diversity http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
Tierra Curry
PO Box 11374 Portland, OR 97211
[email protected] 928-522-3681
Tierra Curry
[email protected] 928-522-3681
General Species Information
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Common name, genus, and species
Geographic range
Conservation status
Remaining population size
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Eastern U.S. from New York south to Mississippi and from Virginia west to Illinois
Under Status Review for Endangered Species Act protection
Unknown. Historically common, the hellbender is estimated to have declined by up to 70
percent.
Report Questions
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Can you provide high-resolution photos?
If your species is selected, will you use the report
to advocate for the species?
5 free reports provided; additional copies =
$2.60/each. If you’d like additional copies, how
many (bulk orders may be cheaper)?
yes
yes
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Public Engagement Questions (Please explain why the species is interesting, why it matters, why decision-makers + the public should care.)0
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Provide background information, including
interesting facts, for the species profile.
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What is your organization’s most important lead
message for the public about this species’ decline
Growing up to two feet long, the hellbender is North America’s largest amphibian. With faces
that look like rocks, hellbenders are ancient salamanders that have changed very little over
time. Hellbenders are uniquely adapted to aquatic life with paddle-like tails and flattened
bodies that allow them to cling to river bottoms. Numerous flaps of skin on their sides allow
oxygen absorption. They have lidless eyes and see poorly, but have light sensitive cells all over
their bodies and use vibrations and scents for communication and foraging. Hellbenders
secrete toxic slime to ward off predators but are not poisonous to humans. Hellbenders are
known by a number of colorful common names, including snot otters, mud devils, and
walking catfish.
The recent decline of the hellbender, a species that thrived for tens of thousands of years,
reflects the decline of water quality in rivers in the eastern United States. Protecting the
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
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to be included in the report?
Is your NGO saving the species? If yes, how?
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How can individuals help? Please be specific.
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What action should the new administration take
to save the species? How can they accomplish
this action?
hellbender will help protect the health of rivers and all the species that call them home.
The Center and allies petitioned for ESA protection for the hellbender in 2010 and are still
working to gain protection for the species and its critical habitat.
Individuals can help save the hellbender by writing a letter to FWS in support of its protection
and by volunteering with local groups like watershed councils who are working to improve the
water quality of rivers.
The new administration should protect the hellbender under the ESA, designate critical
habitat for it, and develop a strong recovery plan that outlines the actions that need to be
taken to ensure its survival.
Criteria-specific Questions – Please feel free to answer N/A or “see above/below” as appropriate. Please cite scientific studies.
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Detail the ecological importance of the species.
Does it play a critical function in its ecosystem,
e.g., as a foundational species or keystone
species? How does the ecosystem depend on
this species (e.g., keystone predator, keystone
pollinator, ecological engineer, refugia provider,
etc.)?
Detail information on any social or economic
benefits the species provides—e.g., its value for
clean water, recreation, medicine, scientific
research, etc.—if any. (Optional)
Can the species be an ambassador for its habitat
or taxonomic group? If yes, detail.
Hellbenders play an important role in the food web because they eat insects, dead fish, and
crayfish, and are in turn eaten themselves by snakes, turtles, and fish. The hellbender is an
umbrella species for good water quality. Making sure its habitat is healthy will ensure a safe
environment for hundreds of other freshwater species.
The hellbender is a symbol of clean rivers. In polluted waters it develops dramatic lesions,
becomes ill, and eventually disappears. Hellbenders are an indicator species of healthy water
quality.
There is no better ambassador than the hellbender, North America’s largest amphibian, for
the water quality of the rivers where it spends its entire life, and for all of the other species in
its watersheds that rely on high water quality for survival.
Judge’s Score for Importance of Species:
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Describe the specific threat(s) to the species.
What are the greatest impacts?
Detail the current and projected decline of the
species.
Hellbenders are threatened by pollution, dams, mining, logging, disease, and collection.
If not described above, detail the status of the
species’ habitat(s). What are the threats, if any?
Is there adequate connectivity?
Describe the timing of the species’ threat(s). Is it
Hellbenders have declined by up to 70 percent overall and have been lost entirely from many
rivers where they were once found. Surveys are currently underway to determine where they
still survive, and some captive breeding programs have been initiated to boost populations.
Many populations of hellbenders have become isolated due to poor water quality and dams.
Research is ongoing to determine the current distribution of the species.
Hellbenders are currently threatened across the majority of their range by declining water
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies
a current, eminent, or future threat?
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Indicate if there is an associated political threat,
e.g., does an industry group or member of
Congress threaten this species?
quality, which also threatens a host of other species in rivers in the eastern United States.
They are also threatened by the spread of diseases that are causing amphibian declines
worldwide.
Currently there is no opposition to protection for the hellbender, but if it is proposed for
Endangered Species Act protection, it will likely be actively opposed by mining, timber, and
agricultural special interest groups.
Judge’s Score for Severity and Extent of Threat:
Judge’s Final Score
Please submit to [email protected] by July 29, 2016, and thank you for participating in the 2016 Top 10 Report.
Please cite any substantiating scientific studies