The eastern hellbender salamander- also known as the Allegheny Alligator, old lasagna-sides, or snot otter- is the largest North American salamander and lives exclusively under large rocks at the bottom of cold, fast-moving rivers and streams. This species is endangered or threatened throughout its range, primarily due to loss of appropriate habitat.
It is an enormous amount of work to search for hellbenders. You need a large team of people with wetsuits, masks, snorkels, nets, and peaveys (a tool traditionally used for logging that can lift the huge rocks that hellbenders love to hide beneath). You also need the weather and stream conditions to be just right - clear water and a sunny day give you the best chance to spot a hellbender. Even when you are able to assemble a large enough team and get lucky with good weather and stream conditions, your presence in the stream kicks up silt, which can fill in the cracks beneath big rocks where hellbenders like to hide. To help reduce the burden of hellbender surveys and the stress that these place on the animals and the environment, we are collaborating with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to hone and deploy methods for hellbender environmental DNA (eDNA) detection.
The search for hellbender eDNA has been successful in many locations throughout the species' range; however, it can lack sensitivity in areas with low hellbender population densities. Our goal is to identify modifications to existing methods that can help increase the sensitivity of this tool for low-density hellbender populations. If we are successful, our methods may be used to support a transition towards non-invasive monitoring for hellbenders, thereby protecting both an at-risk species and the delicate habitat it depends on.
