Hurricane Helene recently ravaged the southeastern United States, cutting a path of destruction from the Florida coast past the mountains of North Carolina, more than 480 kilometers (300 miles) inland. The inland flooding has been catastrophic, and conservationists worry that the unprecedented storm may push some vulnerable species toward extinction.
One of the most locally iconic species of concern is the hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). At roughly 0.6 meters (2 feet) long and weighing in at nearly 2.2 kilograms (5 pounds), the hellbender is the largest species of salamander in the Americas. It is entirely aquatic and extremely sensitive to water pollution.
“There’s so much contamination in floodwater,” Tierra Curry, endangered species coordinator with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Mongabay during a phone call. “Everything that was on the land can now settle out in the water, including things that are going to cause pollution for a long time, like refrigerators and cars.”
Curry said the additional sediment from floodwater is also deadly for hellbenders. They live and breed under large rocks, in crevices that can be filled in with sediment during a flood. She said a storm in Missouri a few years ago crushed some salamanders and washed others downstream where they couldn’t survive.
Hellbenders are considered vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of endangered species, yet they are not currently listed as such under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, largely due to their large range in the eastern U.S. The species lives in cold, clear, running water from Georgia all the way to New York, but Curry said they are disappearing throughout their range due to human development and subsequent water pollution, plus disease.
“So, 40% of their population has been wiped out entirely, 40% are not healthy and are not reproducing, but they are long-lived so those populations are still there just because older adults are surviving, but they’re not able to successfully reproduce. So, you’re looking at 20% of the population that are healthy and reproducing, and the core of their healthy range just got hit super hard,” Curry said.
In a September 2024 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Curry argued that the eastern hellbender should be added to the endangered species list before their populations decline further.
The giant amphibian is regionally famous, as evidenced by the many hellbender-themed restaurants, video games, music and poetry events. The huge hurricane’s devastation will be a hurdle for them, and for the hundreds of other lesser-known species at risk of extinction that also call the mountainous area home, including many species of amphibians, freshwater mussels and reptiles. Curry said she thinks it will take time to understand the full extent of the ecological damage.
“I am extremely concerned,” she said, adding, “It’s going to be a while before people can even survey.”
Banner image: Eastern hellbenders can grow longer than 0.6 meters (2 feet), making them North America’s largest salamander. Photo courtesy of Freshwaters Illustrated/Dave Herasimtschuk/USDA.
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