Endangered Ozark Hellbender Salamanders Breed in Captivity for the First Time
December 5th, 2011 |
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“In my 24 years in the zoo business, this is one of the most exciting periods I’ve been through so far,” says Jeff Ettling, curator of herpetology and aquatics at the Saint Louis Zoo. He’s talking about the birth of 185 baby Ozark hellbender salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) at the zoo’s Ron Goellner Center for [...]
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Hellbender Salamander Gets Endangered Species Designation, but No Habitat Protection—and That May Be a Good Thing
October 7th, 2011 |
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) this week granted the Ozark hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but made the unusual decision not to declare critical habitat for the rare, giant salamanders because, it said, doing so could open it to threats from those who would illegally collect the [...]
Keep reading »Endangered eastern hellbenders bred for first time
December 13th, 2012 |
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Together with its cousins, the Japanese and Chinese Giant Salamanders, the hellbender is one of the largest amphibians in the world, and part of the only group of animals that can breathe mostly through folds of excess skin between their front and back legs. They’re a strange creature worth investing in, especially now that their [...]
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