Hellbender part 2
[Music]
[What happens to the hellbender, happens to us.]
>> This is the backside of the herpetarium. This is where the herpetology department is based out of, including our Hellbender Conservation Center. We have led the way in hellbender conservation and hellbender propagation here at the zoo. Again, we literally wrote the book on hellbender husbandry and hellbender care.
This is the largest program like this in existence. We currently have a few thousand hellbenders that we're rearing here. Since we began, a few other institutions have begun working with hellbenders across the United States, which is great. So, now there's programs in Tennessee, in Kentucky, in Indiana . . . but it started here and we work really closely with a lot of our colleagues in other states who are caring for and attempting to breed hellbenders. But it started here, and we've gotten really, really good at it.
[Music]
JUSTIN 1.WAV
JILL VO (108): HEY THERE AND WELCOME BACK TO NATURE BOOST … I’M JILL PRITCHARD WITH THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION.
LAST MONTH … WE LEARNED ABOUT THE OFFICIAL ENDANGERED SPECIES OF MISSOURI … THE HELLBENDER. THIS UNIQUE SALAMANDER HAS HAD QUITE THE STRUGGLE SURVIVING A MYRAID OF HARDSHIPS … BUT THANKFULLY … A SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN MDC, THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO … AND OTHER AGENCIES … HAS GIVEN THE HELLBENDER A NEW CHANCE TO THRIVE.
[Music]
JUSTIN 2.WAV
[1:36]
>> There's a lot of different things that are impacting hellbenders. First of all, they occur in very specialized habitats. They're only living in fast-flowing, cool water streams that are heavily oxygenated, with these big heavy flat rocks that they can use for nesting as well as hiding. So, they have a very specialized natural history. So, if there's any one little thing that is wrong, it's going to impact their populations negatively.
[2:01]
That's exactly what's happening here. There's a variety of different things caused by people that have been occurring, the siltation of waterways, over collection historically, pollution and runoff in the rivers. We don't necessarily have one silver bullet, kind of, that is leading to their decline that we can immediately stop. So, it's important for us through this propagation and head starting and repatriation back into the wild, to be ahead of the curve while we figure out what exactly it is that needs to be done in the wild.
Realistically, it's many things that need to be done. Rather than sit back and let this species go extinct by doing the propagation and the releases, we hope to buy the animal time while we best figure out how to mitigate a lot of these problems.
[2:52]
JILL VO (109): THAT’S JUSTIN ELDEN … THE CURATOR OF HERPETOLOGY AND AQUATICS AT THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO … AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO WILDCARE INSTITUTE RON AND KAREN GOELLNER CENTER FOR HELLBENDER CONSERVATION.
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JILL VO: IN 2003 … BOTH THE OZARK AND EASTERN HELLBENDER WERE LISTED AS ENDANGERED IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI. IN 2006 … THE RON GOELLNER CENTER FOR HELLBENDER CONSERVATION WAS FORMALLY ESTABLISHED AT THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO. THE CENTER IS THE CONSERVATION PROGRAM FOR HELLBENDERS THAT’S BASED OUT OF THE ZOO’S HERPETARIUM … BUT IS PART OF THE ZOO’S CONSERVATION BRANCH … WHICH IS KNOWN AS THE WILDCARE INSTITUTE.
JUSTIN 3.WAV
[3:34]
>> Our former director of animal care at the zoo, Ron Goellner, he was a huge advocate for Ozark hellbenders, and he really wanted to ensure that we were doing something to help these animals. So, the partnerships were founded with the Missouri Department of Conservation to make sure that we were doing something for these animals. This was perfect timing because in 2007, it was estimated there were only around 500 wild Ozark hellbenders left in Missouri.
[4:02]
That's not a great number, right? It's hard to be optimistic about the fit of a species when we know there's only about 500 of these adults left out there. In 2011, Ozark hellbenders were federally listed as an endangered species. That's when the US Fish and Wildlife got involved as well too, which is great. We had been working with the Missouri Department of Conservation exclusively on this program from this point, so having US Fish and Wildlife be collaborating to an extent is also really great.
In 2021, the Missouri Eastern hellbender was federally listed as well. We had already had the Ozarks listed, but now we have just the eastern hellbenders that occur in Missouri, listed as well. In 2022, we renamed the center to The Wildcare Institute Ron and Karen Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation. This was to better demonstrate, not only Ron Goellner, who was such a giant advocate for hellbender conservation, but also to highlight his wife, Karen, who had passed away by this point and continued in his legacy, to champion for these animals, for them here at the zoo, as well as in the wild.
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JILL VO (110): IF YOU LISTENED TO JANUARY’S EPISODE WITH HERPETOLOGIST JEFF BRIGGLER … YOU’LL RECALL JUST HOW IMPORTANT WATER QUALITY IS FOR HELLBENDERS TO THRIVE. THEY’RE OFTEN AN INDICATOR OF HEALTHY STREAMS BECAUASE THEY REQUIRE CLEAN, COOL WATER TO SURVIVE. THIS SPECIAL HABITAT WAS CRITICAL FOR CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT TO RAISE HELLBENDER EGGS … AND BREED THEM AT THE ZOO.
JUSTIN 4.WAV
[5:40]
>> Our water parameters that we have here, we attempt to match what they are living in the wild. We take a lot of effort to do so. We're doing quite a bit of water quality testing on a daily basis. We are doing lots of water changes. We're documenting all of this so we can keep track of it. It comes from a dedicated team of four zookeepers at the zoo who exclusively work with hellbenders.
[6:08]
Often when you think of a zookeeper, you're thinking of the person in khakis with the radio with a bucket full of food. That's very well and important part of a zookeeper’s job, but for hellbenders in particular, not only are you taking care of the animals, but you're taking care of the water they live in, because the two are so closely intertwined. We try to replicate a natural river as closely as possible. When it comes to what food we give the animals, the hiding opportunities the animals have, and again back to the water quality and the parameters. That is completely taken from the wild, right. It's really amazing. When it comes to a lot of these conservation programs, nature has given us the blueprints. Nature has shown us what to do with these animals. We just need to listen and replicate that as best we can.
We often say here, we literally wrote the book on hellbender care and hellbender reproduction. Because we had to learn from scratch. We had to learn how to do it here, on site because it had never been done before. To the greatest extent, as far as the technical side of things and the technological side of things, that is absolutely true. But, nature was the first [laughing] to do this. We listen to nature and replicated it here.
With that said, it takes a village to do this. We have an entire team of zookeepers who are dedicated to the care and conservation of hellbenders. They work 40 hours a week, only taking care of hellbenders. It is because of them that this program has been so massively successful. It is because of them that the hellbender, the Ozark hellbender in particular, and the Missouri eastern hellbender isn't going to go extinct within our lifetime.
We also have a veterinary staff on zoo site who is always here for us. It doesn't matter if it is 5 til 5:00, and they're getting ready to leave for the day. If I call with a health concern about an animal, they run down. They are here for us all the time. We are insanely grateful for them. We also have a life system support team, the exact same as our vet staff. They are here whenever we need them to help with the technical side of things, from the filtration and the chiller apparatus, or whatnot, for these systems.
[8:13]
We have an HVAC department who helps tremendously to make sure our systems are kept cold. It's difficult to have these systems with clean, flowing water, let alone have them be at an appropriate temperature for these animals that need cold, cold water. We have a really amazing team here at the zoo from all aspects of care and all aspects of the technical side of things. We're insanely grateful that we have all of these pieces that fall into place, so that we can help the Missouri Department of Conservation, and US Fish and Wildlife, Tolworth the goal of making sure this species doesn't go extinct.
>> Number 10,000!
[Cheering]
JUSTIN 44.WAV
[8:55]
>> So this is where our hellbender areas begin. This is our Hellbender Center. We have three large labs down here and one smaller room. We have three stream systems, two of which are located outside, but the bulk of the work we do is based out of these labs down here. It's pretty loud, as you can tell. That's primarily because in order to keep this water clean, cool and heavily oxygenated, it takes a lot of equipment, lots of pumps, lots of gadgets and gizmos. We do quite a bit here to make sure that the hellbenders are getting appropriate conditions.
>> Are you like Willy Wonka for hellbenders?
[Laughing]
>> Um . . .
>> I don't know why that just came to me.
>> Yes, I . . . That is correct. I'm sure my hellbender keepers are going to have a great time with that later.
[Laughing]
>> All right. Let's see it.
>> As we step in here, you can go ahead and disinfect your shoes.
>> Oh, you have to . . . there's like that little pan here . . .
>> Yes, a disinfectant to make sure there are no potential pathogens that get moved into this room. That way if somebody stepped in a puddle or something outside, they're not inadvertently bringing something in here.
>> Okay, so Just . . .
>> Just a quick one, two, on this when we come in here.
>> Okay. Oh, it's much cooler in here.
>> This is Patty. Patty one is of our hellbender zookeepers here at the zoo. Like I mentioned, we have a dedicated team of four keepers who work tirelessly to make sure our hellbenders are getting the best possible care, and who coordinate with MDC on releases and egg acquisitions and whatnot. So, they are the frontlines of this program and without them, none of this would be possible.
>> Thank you for saving hellbenders, Patty!
>> Thank you. Thank you for caring! We do what we can.
>> So this room here is our original hellbender room. At one point in time, the hellbender program - in 2007, when I started - it consisted of this room and one other room. The idea was we would breed the hellbenders in this room, and then head start them in the smaller room as babies, and then move then back into this room to get a little more size on them. The program has grown so much over the years that it's now expanded to three rooms. It has essentially quadrupled the amount of space that we started with, which is great.
>> Good problem to have.
>> For sure, it's a great problem to have. These here are egg trays and this is where we put our eggs, whether they're produced here at the zoo, or they're being pulled from the field. And --
>> You have running water on top of that.
>> Exactly. So each of these systems has a sump, where there's a large water basin, a chiller unit to keep the water nice and cool, and then there's a variety of different pumps that are pumping the water into each of these trays, and gently allowing the water to flow from one tray to another to another to another to keep the water nice and clean and make sure that we've got a constant flow of water on the eggs.
[12:21]
But in the wild, hellbender males, they guard their nests. As they are guarding their eggs, keeping crayfish and other big male hellbenders out, who might want to eat the eggs, or any fish that might want to come and eat an egg or two. As they're doing that, they're moving their tail back and forth and back and forth, adding a little extra flow to these eggs. We actually replicate that here at the zoo, once we have them in these egg trays. Keeper staff will be in multiple times a day, and hand turn the eggs gently in order to act as a hellbender father's tail. It works really well, and it's improved our success rate with hatching here, also.
>> I love that. You guys really had to think of everything.
>> Yes. Again, we've spared no expense. We had to learn from scratch, but we've done a phenomenal job of learning the ins and outs of hellbender care and propagation that directly leads to their conservation in the wild.
>> So, what age did we say are in here? Are these juvenile?
>> These are adults in here. These are adults that actually came from the field. These are from a pretty endangered locality. So, it was determined that in order to save this population of hellbenders, we needed to pull some founder animals out of the field. The idea being that we can keep them here, breed them here. Then, what we are hoping that someday -- these animals have done such a phenomenal job of reproducing here at the zoo, that those animals themselves can be put back into the wild. And we have done that for quite a few animals here, where they have been pulled from the field, kept here at the zoo, bred, and then they get to be released back in the wild, along with their offspring that they produced here, once they have become pretty represented from a genetic standpoint.
[14:09]
So the animals in this system, we don't really know the ages of them, because they did all come to the field. But likely, they are more than 15 years old. Hellbenders can realistically live to probably be 30. I wouldn't be surprised if they could live to be much older than that, but we don't really have a whole lot of great data on their age. They're seemingly a very long-lived animal that grows pretty slowly.
>> It is surprising to hear how long their lifespan Is.
>> Yep. A lot of large amphibians can live long lives. Reptiles, too, a very different group of animals, of course. But reptiles -- we have giant tortoises here at the zoo that are well over 100 years old. So, yeah.
>> Now, this is the largest salamander in Missouri, correct?
>> It's the largest amphibian period, in the United States. The largest amphibian in the new world. They are some other amphibians that rival it in size here in Missouri and the US. For example, the three-toed amphiuma that we have here in Missouri. Those can get pretty big. There's some different toed species from Central and South America that also can get very large. Generally speaking, these are the largest amphibians that we are here in the United States, and possibly in the new world.
They are one of the largest amphibians on the planet. The only salamanders that are larger than these in the entire world are the giant salamanders from China and Japan, that are very closely related to hellbenders. In fact, if you're looking at them side by side and didn't know what you were looking at, you would think they were the exact same thing, especially --
>> Oh but they're not hellbenders?
>> They're not a hellbender, but they are closely related. They are both Brachodes, but distinct enough from a geological timescale, that they are their own groups of animals. They do look similar. But one major difference between the hellbenders and the giant salamanders is in the name alone. The giant salamanders of Japan and China, they get exceptionally large. Hellbenders get large. These get exceptionally large, with individuals up to six feet, existing.
[16:10]
>> That's freaky. That is kind of freaky.
>> Yeah, exactly. It is a salamander that is about the size of a small crocodilian. They are amazing animals, and also not doing well in the wild. We have colleagues and friends in Japan who work with the Japanese giant salamander, and we, along with collaborating with organizations here in the United States that work with hellbenders and giving them the background and tips and tricks to reproduce and care for hellbenders, so they can be successful like we have.
We also work with collaborators in Japan to do the same things. So, it's pretty amazing not only whenever you're making an impact for the conservation of these animals here in our own backyard, but across the world.
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JUSTIN 5.WAV
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JUSTIN 6.WAV
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JILL VO (111): SINCE THE HELLBENDER RESTORATION PROGRAM BEGAN … THE ZOO HAS RELEASED CLOSE TO ELEVEN-THOUSAND HELLBENDERS … BACK TO THEIR NATIVE OZARK AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM. AND ALL OF THOSE ANIMALS … STARTED AS AN EGG … AT THE ZOO. WHETHER THEY WERE BRED AT THE ZOO … OR EGGS THAT WERE COLLECTED IN THE WILD BY JEFF BRIGGLER … THEY ALL GOT THEIR START AT THE ZOO. IN ORDER TO TRACK RELEASED HELLBENDERS AND CONTINUE THEIR RESEARCH … BIOLOGISTS IMPLANT EACH ONE WITH A MICROCHIP … THEY CAN LATER SCAN IN THE FIELD. THIS TECHNOLOGY ALLOWED THEM TO MAKE WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES … IN THE PAST FEW YEARS. AN OZARK HELLBENDER WAS FOUND WITH CLUTCH OF EGGS … IN FALL OF 2022 … AND THEN JUST THIS PAST FALL … AN EASTERN HELLBENDER MALE FOLLOWED SUIT.
JUSTIN 7.WAV
[17:43]
>> Once again, we know that these are animals from here at the zoo, because of the painstaking care that MDC does on these field surveys and knowing that they're tagged individuals from here at the zoo. And yeah, they're found guarding and raising eggs. So, it's really heavy stuff. It's really important stuff and I'm confident now that this is going to be something we see all the time. I don't think these are two isolated incidences. I don't think they are the first times this has happened. I think it's probably happened with other animals who were just not in areas where we could find them or survey them. But it's the first ones we found. I don't think it's going to be the last ones we find. I think it's going to happen much more often, which is huge.
>> That's the whole point of this process.
>> It's the whole point. I love hellbenders, and I love how we have been doing such great things for the reclamation. We want to make sure that they can take the lead at some point and do well without us having to breed them and release them, right? If, for the rest of my career we are rearing and releasing hellbenders into the wild to ensure that they don't go extinct, so be it. But we want to make sure we are doing everything we can, to set them up for success in the wild and part of that is reproducing on their own, once they have been released from here at the zoo.
And then furthermore, we want to make sure those babies are getting to a size that they can survive in the wild, and they are breeding in the wild, too.
[19:08]
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JILL VO (112): THERE ARE MANY THINGS WE CAN DO TO HELP OUR ENDANGERED OZARK AND EASTERN HELLBENDER. THE FIRST THING JUSTIN SAYS WE CAN DO … IS TAKE PRIDE.
JUSTIN 8.WAV
>> This weird, ugly animal, it's yours. It lives - especially the Ozark subspecies. This is your animal that lives here in your waterways. It's the only place in the world that it lives. You might think it's ugly and crazy-looking. I don't think it's crazy-looking, I think it's absolutely beautiful. But, you might not have the most fond thoughts on this animal, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's yours. It's an animal that belongs to our state and to our Ozark plateau. We should be insanely proud of that. Because it's only here. So, taking pride in that, I think is the first thing because that just leads to a variety of other things, right?
[20:30]
Easy, kind of, like concrete things that people can do . . . if you are floating on any riverway here in Missouri, whether it's a river where there might be hellbenders or even a lake or something, don't pollute. Don't trash your rivers, right? That's not good for anybody, and a lot of that stuff might very well flow into hellbender habitat. Or if you are on hellbender habitat, it is obviously not good for a male hellbender to try to be making a nest and have a beer can flow into the opening of his nesting cavity.
So just being a good steward of nature and being respectful of our state's waterways. That is huge. One thing I really like is in a lot of areas where people can go floating recreationally, you get these cool trash bags that have this funny little caricature of a hellbender on them. The state's done a great job of really kind of getting people to buy into this. But still, if you're floating with a group of friends, and you see a buddy throw a beer can in the water, tear him up for that. Let him know that is not cool. Again, these waterways are your waterways, and you wouldn't want someone coming to your house and throwing trash in your yard. Certainly, don't allow it to happen in your streams and rivers, either.
Other than that, if you're a sport fisherman, if you're out fishing in our beautiful waterways here, and you were to accidentally catch a hellbender, report it immediately to MDC. That way, the state can do what it needs to do with that report. Don't go out of your way to look for hellbenders. In fact, that is very illegal and detrimental to hellbenders. But if you accidentally catch one while you're out fishing, make sure it gets reported. Just to know hellbenders and seeing them in the wild, that is not something the general public can do at this point.
This is because these animals, again, are so incredibly endangered. I get asked by visitors here to the zoo, all the time, "Where can I see a hellbender?" You shouldn't be looking for them. You shouldn't be trying to find them because you are going to do so much harm to these animals. Again, it's very illegal.
[22:06]
My hope is that time, maybe 15, 20, 25, 30 years from now, our efforts here at the zoo with MDC will be so successful that it won't be uncommon for people out floating on a family float trip or something to see a hellbender incidentally. Again, that goes back to this animal. It belongs to the people of the state. My hope is that someday it will be commonplace for people to see them. But at this point in time, they're ghosts to an extent, and that's the way it should be. Until they've completely rebounded, they need privacy and they need patience.
MUSIC/TRANSITION
JILL VO (113): THE BEST PLACE TO GO LOOK FOR A HELLBENDER? THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO OF COURSE! PLAN A TRIP TO SEE THESE INCREDIBLE SALAMANDERS FOR YOURSELF … AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ZOO’S CRITICAL WORK TO KEEP HELLBENDERS PART OF MISSOURI’S NATURAL HISTORY.
I WANT TO GIVE A HUGE THANK YOU AGAIN TO JUSTIN ELDEN … CURATOR OF HERPETOLOGY AND AQUATICS AT THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO … AND DIRECTOR OF THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO WILDCARE INSTITUTE RON AND KAREN GOELLNER CENTER FOR HELLBENDER CONSERVATION, TO CHRISTY CHILDS … SAINT LOUIS ZOO PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER … AND AGAIN TO MDC’S HERPETOLOGIST DOCTOR JEFF BRIGGLER.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HELLBENDERS AT STLZOO-DOT-ORG … OR AT MISSOURI-CONSERVATION-DOT-ORG.
I’M JILL PRITCHARD WITH THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION …ENCOURAGING YOU TO GET YOUR DAILY DOSE OF THE OUTDOORS!
EASTER EGG.W
>> Do you think these hellbenders know how lucky they are?
[Laughing]
>> I, uh . . . I would certainly hope so.
[Laughing]
>>. I'd love to talk to one someday. So, if anyone out there can figure that out for me, and crack the communication code, I'd love to have a hellbender Rosetta Stone and let them know if they already don't know.
[End of audio.]