Rare salamander, other species prompt state questions (Hellbender)
Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011By SAMMY FRETWELL - sfretwell@thestate.com, from the State.com
No one knows much about hellbenders in South Carolina, but recent federal action has focused attention on whether the big salamanders need special protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The slithering amphibians are among 46 plants and animals being studied in South Carolina for possible listing under the law.
But while environmentalists say the review will help save many dwindling species, state wildlife officials say the federal initiative comes with a price.
Protecting many of these species could restrict development on private land and cost the state a pile of money, say officials with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. One DNR estimate placed the cost in the millions of dollars, although state officials note that it's too early to say definitively.
"We don't know for sure yet what is going to happen," DNR board chairwoman Caroline Rhodes said. "But the expectation is that if these particular species are listed, then you have to have the money to do whatever it is to protect them or re-establish them.''
Rhodes, recently appointed to chair the board by Gov. Nikki Haley, said she supports the goal of the federal law - to save endangered plants and animals - but she is skeptical that so many species might need special protected status in South Carolina. The review is a sweeping look at species and is not normally taken by the federal agency.
"If a species is clearly endangered, it's something we would try to do,'' she said. "But if this is just a stumbling block for economic development ...Well, I hope that wouldn't happen."
In response to a legal petition by environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in September that it would review the status of 374 species in the South to see whether they should receive special protection under the endangered species law. The Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting comments from the public about the multitude of plants and animals that one day could be listed as a federally protected endangered species.
After the comments are received, the government eventually will determine whether more research is needed or whether to list the plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act. The listings aren't expected immediately because the Fish and Wildlife Service has several hundred other species already under review, agency spokesman Tom Mackenzie said. Action may not be taken to list any of the 374 species for five years or more, he said.
Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said he's glad the Fish and Wildlife Service has taken action. As information comes in, the agency will learn more about which plants and animals need extra protection and which do not, he said. His group filed the legal request that prompted the federal review.
"To the extent this does cost money, I'd say it's money well spent,'' Greenwald said. "It's something (wildlife agencies) are supposed to be doing: ensure species are not lost. This is a good thing.''
In South Carolina, the 46 species that could be listed include four kinds of crayfish, 25 different types of flowering plants, two kinds of fish and numerous insects, the Fish and Wildlife Service reports. Also included on the study list is the Carolina Hemlock, a tree found almost exclusively on dry mountain sides in the southern Appalachians.
As for hellbenders, DNR officials don't think the animals exist in South Carolina, but they can't say for sure because they've never done an extensive study. Still, they're hoping their professional opinion will persuade the federal government not to list hellbenders as endangered in this state or initiate costly state studies.
Hellbenders, which can grow to more than two feet long, are among the largest salamanders in North America. Typically, they are found in cold rocky streams across the South. One South Carolina DNR report says two hellbenders were caught in Lake Tugaloo in the state's northwest corner. Officials suspect the animals were brought there as fish bait and escaped, but they were not native to the lake, the agency's Breck Carmichael said.
Carmichael also said the robust redhorse, a fish species once thought to be extinct in South Carolina, is making a recovery through efforts to raise them in hatcheries. As a result, they don't need to be listed, Carmichael said.
Praised by conservationists as a way to protect species that could become extinct, the Endangered Species Act sometimes draws criticism from landowners and businesses worried that the discovery of a rare species will restrict use of their property. The presence of endangered animals or plants, for instance, can require landowners to take extra steps so they won't disturb the species when developing property.
That has hit home recently with the state-owned Santee Cooper power company. The company says it might have to spend a billion dollars to help protect and revive populations of shortnose sturgeon, a bony fish already listed under the endangered species law. Shortnose sturgeon populations dropped after Santee Cooper built dams to form lakes Marion and Moultrie in the early 20th century.
In the 1990s, landowners also had to work out agreements to protect red-cockaded woodpeckers, which are also endangered in South Carolina.
Greenwald questioned whether the DNR would have to spend much money because of the review. And he said claims that people lose property rights when endangered species are found on their land is an overblown argument.
"Generally, if there is a conflict, the Fish and Wildlife Service goes out of its way to work things out in a way that is equitable to landowners,'' he said. "I'd also say that if you are a landowner and you are blessed to have unusual species or habitat on your land, in some ways that's a treasure. You have an opportunity to help preserve species for future generations.''
But John Frampton, the DNR's outgoing director, said the state's budget woes don't make the matter any easier. The DNR's budget has been slashed dramatically in recent years.
"We've got no money for endangered species," Frampton said, noting that "if you think you've got problems with sturgeon and red cockaded woodpeckers, you haven't seen anything yet."
Showing posts with label hellbender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hellbender. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Groups plan to sue for species protections (Via Herp Digest)
Groups plan to sue for species protections (Florida sandhill crane, hellbender and Black Warrior waterdog salamanders, Alabama map turtle and burrowing bog crayfish)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. AP 4/23/11 -- A coalition of environmental groups has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it intends to sue the agency, claiming it failed to act on a petition asking that more than 400 species in Southeastern streams and rivers be listed as threatened or endangered species.The groups, which include the Alabama Rivers Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, petitioned the department a year ago. They cited the declining numbers of animals such as the Florida sandhill crane, hellbender and Black Warrior waterdog salamanders, Alabama map turtle and burrowing bog crayfish.Atlanta-based U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Office spokesman Jeff Fleming says the agency has been strained by diminished budgets and the Gulf oil spill, but still processes petitions for species protection.
Information from: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/23/2182298/groups-plan-to-sue-for-species.html#ixzz1KT1ToiMP
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. AP 4/23/11 -- A coalition of environmental groups has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it intends to sue the agency, claiming it failed to act on a petition asking that more than 400 species in Southeastern streams and rivers be listed as threatened or endangered species.The groups, which include the Alabama Rivers Alliance and the Center for Biological Diversity, petitioned the department a year ago. They cited the declining numbers of animals such as the Florida sandhill crane, hellbender and Black Warrior waterdog salamanders, Alabama map turtle and burrowing bog crayfish.Atlanta-based U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Office spokesman Jeff Fleming says the agency has been strained by diminished budgets and the Gulf oil spill, but still processes petitions for species protection.
Information from: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/23/2182298/groups-plan-to-sue-for-species.html#ixzz1KT1ToiMP
Friday, September 10, 2010
Ark., Mo. salamander proposed for endangered list (via Richard Freeman)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 2010
By Tom Parsons
The four-legged Ozark hellbender is big and not very pretty.
It's also very uncommon, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to suggest the freshwater salamander be added to the nation's endangered species list.
The Ozark hellbender lives only in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the agency says. The animals can grow up to 2 feet long and once were common in the streams of the Ozark Mountains, but their numbers have greatly dwindled.
"Not everyone considers it pretty, but it is a pretty neat animal," Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Trisha Crabill said in a recorded interview produced by her agency.
Crabill, who works in the agency's field office at Columbia, Mo., said the Ozark hellbender is not well known because the salamander has dark, mottled skin and is not often seen.
"Most people won't ever see them because they stay pretty well hidden in the water," she said. "They don't ever really come out of the water and they're found just in the pools of fast-flowing streams in the Ozark Plateau."
Crabill said siltation in the Ozarks streams, as well as increased levels of nitrogen and phosphate, from fertilizers and contamination by human and animal waste, has helped reduce the species' numbers. She said higher nitrogen and phosphate levels have led to algae and other vegetation that clog the streams and coat the rocks of the streambeds.
Other factors, she said, had been heavy metals in the water, such as zinc and lead from mining-operation runoff. The Ozarks region was once mined heavily for both metals.
According to Crabill, the karst terrain of the Ozarks _ with underlying limestone allowing water to make its way easily from place to place underground _ makes controlling pollution difficult in the region.
"There's a lot of water falling underground through sink holes, caverns and other openings that have been created by the rocks dissolving underground," she said.
Collette Adkins Giese, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the proposed endangered-species listing of the Ozark hellbender is cause for celebration. Protection under the Endangered Species Act, she said, "would give this species a fighting chance."
According to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Ozark hellbender is a subspecies of the Eastern hellbender.
The large amphibians are known by several common names, including alligator of the mountains, big water lizard, devil dog, ground puppy, leverian water newt, mud-devil, vulgo, walking catfish, and water dog.
The release said hellbenders have flattened bodies that fit in crevices and allow them to cling to river bottoms and move through strong currents. They also have numerous folds of skin on their sides that allow increased oxygen absorption from the water.
The Fish and Wildlife Service says the salamanders are believed to occur now in only six Arkansas counties _ Baxter, Clay, Fulton, Lawrence, Randolph and Sharp _ and 11 in Missouri _ Carter, Dent, Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Texas and Wright.
By Tom Parsons
The four-legged Ozark hellbender is big and not very pretty.
It's also very uncommon, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to suggest the freshwater salamander be added to the nation's endangered species list.
The Ozark hellbender lives only in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the agency says. The animals can grow up to 2 feet long and once were common in the streams of the Ozark Mountains, but their numbers have greatly dwindled.
"Not everyone considers it pretty, but it is a pretty neat animal," Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Trisha Crabill said in a recorded interview produced by her agency.
Crabill, who works in the agency's field office at Columbia, Mo., said the Ozark hellbender is not well known because the salamander has dark, mottled skin and is not often seen.
"Most people won't ever see them because they stay pretty well hidden in the water," she said. "They don't ever really come out of the water and they're found just in the pools of fast-flowing streams in the Ozark Plateau."
Crabill said siltation in the Ozarks streams, as well as increased levels of nitrogen and phosphate, from fertilizers and contamination by human and animal waste, has helped reduce the species' numbers. She said higher nitrogen and phosphate levels have led to algae and other vegetation that clog the streams and coat the rocks of the streambeds.
Other factors, she said, had been heavy metals in the water, such as zinc and lead from mining-operation runoff. The Ozarks region was once mined heavily for both metals.
According to Crabill, the karst terrain of the Ozarks _ with underlying limestone allowing water to make its way easily from place to place underground _ makes controlling pollution difficult in the region.
"There's a lot of water falling underground through sink holes, caverns and other openings that have been created by the rocks dissolving underground," she said.
Collette Adkins Giese, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the proposed endangered-species listing of the Ozark hellbender is cause for celebration. Protection under the Endangered Species Act, she said, "would give this species a fighting chance."
According to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Ozark hellbender is a subspecies of the Eastern hellbender.
The large amphibians are known by several common names, including alligator of the mountains, big water lizard, devil dog, ground puppy, leverian water newt, mud-devil, vulgo, walking catfish, and water dog.
The release said hellbenders have flattened bodies that fit in crevices and allow them to cling to river bottoms and move through strong currents. They also have numerous folds of skin on their sides that allow increased oxygen absorption from the water.
The Fish and Wildlife Service says the salamanders are believed to occur now in only six Arkansas counties _ Baxter, Clay, Fulton, Lawrence, Randolph and Sharp _ and 11 in Missouri _ Carter, Dent, Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Texas and Wright.
Ark., Mo. salamander proposed for endangered list (via Richard Freeman)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 2010
By Tom Parsons
The four-legged Ozark hellbender is big and not very pretty.
It's also very uncommon, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to suggest the freshwater salamander be added to the nation's endangered species list.
The Ozark hellbender lives only in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the agency says. The animals can grow up to 2 feet long and once were common in the streams of the Ozark Mountains, but their numbers have greatly dwindled.
"Not everyone considers it pretty, but it is a pretty neat animal," Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Trisha Crabill said in a recorded interview produced by her agency.
Crabill, who works in the agency's field office at Columbia, Mo., said the Ozark hellbender is not well known because the salamander has dark, mottled skin and is not often seen.
"Most people won't ever see them because they stay pretty well hidden in the water," she said. "They don't ever really come out of the water and they're found just in the pools of fast-flowing streams in the Ozark Plateau."
Crabill said siltation in the Ozarks streams, as well as increased levels of nitrogen and phosphate, from fertilizers and contamination by human and animal waste, has helped reduce the species' numbers. She said higher nitrogen and phosphate levels have led to algae and other vegetation that clog the streams and coat the rocks of the streambeds.
Other factors, she said, had been heavy metals in the water, such as zinc and lead from mining-operation runoff. The Ozarks region was once mined heavily for both metals.
According to Crabill, the karst terrain of the Ozarks _ with underlying limestone allowing water to make its way easily from place to place underground _ makes controlling pollution difficult in the region.
"There's a lot of water falling underground through sink holes, caverns and other openings that have been created by the rocks dissolving underground," she said.
Collette Adkins Giese, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the proposed endangered-species listing of the Ozark hellbender is cause for celebration. Protection under the Endangered Species Act, she said, "would give this species a fighting chance."
According to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Ozark hellbender is a subspecies of the Eastern hellbender.
The large amphibians are known by several common names, including alligator of the mountains, big water lizard, devil dog, ground puppy, leverian water newt, mud-devil, vulgo, walking catfish, and water dog.
The release said hellbenders have flattened bodies that fit in crevices and allow them to cling to river bottoms and move through strong currents. They also have numerous folds of skin on their sides that allow increased oxygen absorption from the water.
The Fish and Wildlife Service says the salamanders are believed to occur now in only six Arkansas counties _ Baxter, Clay, Fulton, Lawrence, Randolph and Sharp _ and 11 in Missouri _ Carter, Dent, Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Texas and Wright.
By Tom Parsons
The four-legged Ozark hellbender is big and not very pretty.
It's also very uncommon, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to suggest the freshwater salamander be added to the nation's endangered species list.
The Ozark hellbender lives only in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the agency says. The animals can grow up to 2 feet long and once were common in the streams of the Ozark Mountains, but their numbers have greatly dwindled.
"Not everyone considers it pretty, but it is a pretty neat animal," Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Trisha Crabill said in a recorded interview produced by her agency.
Crabill, who works in the agency's field office at Columbia, Mo., said the Ozark hellbender is not well known because the salamander has dark, mottled skin and is not often seen.
"Most people won't ever see them because they stay pretty well hidden in the water," she said. "They don't ever really come out of the water and they're found just in the pools of fast-flowing streams in the Ozark Plateau."
Crabill said siltation in the Ozarks streams, as well as increased levels of nitrogen and phosphate, from fertilizers and contamination by human and animal waste, has helped reduce the species' numbers. She said higher nitrogen and phosphate levels have led to algae and other vegetation that clog the streams and coat the rocks of the streambeds.
Other factors, she said, had been heavy metals in the water, such as zinc and lead from mining-operation runoff. The Ozarks region was once mined heavily for both metals.
According to Crabill, the karst terrain of the Ozarks _ with underlying limestone allowing water to make its way easily from place to place underground _ makes controlling pollution difficult in the region.
"There's a lot of water falling underground through sink holes, caverns and other openings that have been created by the rocks dissolving underground," she said.
Collette Adkins Giese, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the proposed endangered-species listing of the Ozark hellbender is cause for celebration. Protection under the Endangered Species Act, she said, "would give this species a fighting chance."
According to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Ozark hellbender is a subspecies of the Eastern hellbender.
The large amphibians are known by several common names, including alligator of the mountains, big water lizard, devil dog, ground puppy, leverian water newt, mud-devil, vulgo, walking catfish, and water dog.
The release said hellbenders have flattened bodies that fit in crevices and allow them to cling to river bottoms and move through strong currents. They also have numerous folds of skin on their sides that allow increased oxygen absorption from the water.
The Fish and Wildlife Service says the salamanders are believed to occur now in only six Arkansas counties _ Baxter, Clay, Fulton, Lawrence, Randolph and Sharp _ and 11 in Missouri _ Carter, Dent, Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Texas and Wright.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Preserving Sperm Vital to Saving 'Snot Otter' Salamanders (Via HerpDigest)
Preserving Sperm Vital to Saving 'Snot Otter' Salamanders (Hellbender)
ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2010) - The hellbender salamander -- known affectionately as a snot otter or devil dog -- is one of America's unique giant salamander species. For unexplained reasons, most hellbender populations have rapidly declined as very little reproduction has occurred in recent decades.
Working with researchers from the Nashville Zoo and Antwerp Zoo in Belgium, veterinarians from Michigan State University are helping develop conservation techniques to sample and freeze the sperm from some of the last surviving salamanders. The international consortium's work aims to enable future re-stocking of genetically viable hellbenders back to their streams and rivers, ensuring the survival of the species.
The largest salamander found in North America, the hellbender can grow to up to 30 inches long and live 30 years or more. They live in a geographic range from Arkansas northeast to New York and have remained relatively unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs.
Dalen Agnew and Carla Carleton from MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine are focusing specifically on evaluating the freezing techniques, known as cryopreservation, developed to keep the hellbender sperm viable.
"The hellbender in the United States is becoming endangered, and to make things more difficult, they are very secretive," said Agnew, a member of the college's Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation. "The best we can tell, in most hellbender populations there has been no breeding in the wild for several decades."
While other researchers figure out why -- environmental degradation, habitat loss and biological changes are all possibilities -- the team led by Robert Browne of the Antwerp Zoo along with Sally Nofs and Dale McGinnity of the Nashville Zoo is making sure the species does not go extinct, preserving its genetic diversity.
"The work between Nashville Zoo and Michigan State University for the cryopreservation of hellbender sperm is a global model for the genetic management of threatened amphibians," Browne said.
McGinnity, the Nashville Zoo's curator of ectotherms, initiated the project so the frozen salamander sperm can produce hellbenders genetically adapted to their local environments and fit for restocking. Browne developed the cryopreservation protocols, implemented by Nofs -- an MSU veterinary graduate and veterinary services director at the Nashville Zoo -- and her colleague Michael Kirk with captive animals from the zoo. Agnew and Carleton are testing the frozen salamander sperm to ensure the species can be resurrected, if needed.
"This process of cryopreservation is very species specific," Agnew said. "It's a lot like cooking; each species needs its own ingredients and formula. We're basically applying modified fish technologies to amphibians."
So far, the team has seen some promising results: Early tests show researchers have been successful in keeping frozen sperm alive for six months, which indicates the sperm could survive for hundreds of years in cold storage. That will allow the team to establish a collaborative gene banking program for the creature.
"Dr. Agnew and Dr. Carleton's expertise and equipment were invaluable in helping us validate and document the results of our initial cryopreservation trials with the hellbender semen," Nofs said.
As part of the project, the research team also is studying the comparative structure of hellbender sperm using electron photomicrographs, in collaboration with the MSU Center for Advanced Microscopy. This will allow scientists to learn more about the characteristics of the unique amphibian and to ensure its survival.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 4, 2010) - The hellbender salamander -- known affectionately as a snot otter or devil dog -- is one of America's unique giant salamander species. For unexplained reasons, most hellbender populations have rapidly declined as very little reproduction has occurred in recent decades.
Working with researchers from the Nashville Zoo and Antwerp Zoo in Belgium, veterinarians from Michigan State University are helping develop conservation techniques to sample and freeze the sperm from some of the last surviving salamanders. The international consortium's work aims to enable future re-stocking of genetically viable hellbenders back to their streams and rivers, ensuring the survival of the species.
The largest salamander found in North America, the hellbender can grow to up to 30 inches long and live 30 years or more. They live in a geographic range from Arkansas northeast to New York and have remained relatively unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs.
Dalen Agnew and Carla Carleton from MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine are focusing specifically on evaluating the freezing techniques, known as cryopreservation, developed to keep the hellbender sperm viable.
"The hellbender in the United States is becoming endangered, and to make things more difficult, they are very secretive," said Agnew, a member of the college's Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation. "The best we can tell, in most hellbender populations there has been no breeding in the wild for several decades."
While other researchers figure out why -- environmental degradation, habitat loss and biological changes are all possibilities -- the team led by Robert Browne of the Antwerp Zoo along with Sally Nofs and Dale McGinnity of the Nashville Zoo is making sure the species does not go extinct, preserving its genetic diversity.
"The work between Nashville Zoo and Michigan State University for the cryopreservation of hellbender sperm is a global model for the genetic management of threatened amphibians," Browne said.
McGinnity, the Nashville Zoo's curator of ectotherms, initiated the project so the frozen salamander sperm can produce hellbenders genetically adapted to their local environments and fit for restocking. Browne developed the cryopreservation protocols, implemented by Nofs -- an MSU veterinary graduate and veterinary services director at the Nashville Zoo -- and her colleague Michael Kirk with captive animals from the zoo. Agnew and Carleton are testing the frozen salamander sperm to ensure the species can be resurrected, if needed.
"This process of cryopreservation is very species specific," Agnew said. "It's a lot like cooking; each species needs its own ingredients and formula. We're basically applying modified fish technologies to amphibians."
So far, the team has seen some promising results: Early tests show researchers have been successful in keeping frozen sperm alive for six months, which indicates the sperm could survive for hundreds of years in cold storage. That will allow the team to establish a collaborative gene banking program for the creature.
"Dr. Agnew and Dr. Carleton's expertise and equipment were invaluable in helping us validate and document the results of our initial cryopreservation trials with the hellbender semen," Nofs said.
As part of the project, the research team also is studying the comparative structure of hellbender sperm using electron photomicrographs, in collaboration with the MSU Center for Advanced Microscopy. This will allow scientists to learn more about the characteristics of the unique amphibian and to ensure its survival.
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