By Melissa Buckley, Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (September 5, 2024) — “It’s a good day for Fort Leonard Wood conservation,” said Kenton Lorhraff, Directorate of Public Works’ Natural Resources Branch chief, as several Eastern Hellbenders were released Sept. 3 on Fort Leonard Wood.

A team from the Natural Resources Branch, the Directorate of Emergency Services’ Conservation Law Enforcement and the Missouri Department of Conservation measured rocks and adjusted monitoring equipment in preparation for the aquatic release.

As they lowered the hellbenders, one by one, into the water, the aquatic salamanders scurried off to their new homes.

Lohraff described hellbenders as secretive salamanders with wrinkly loose skin.

“They may look threatening but are harmless to humans and spend most of their time hiding under rocks in streambeds,” Lohraff said. “The Eastern Hellbender is the largest amphibian in North America, adults approach two feet in length. Only the giant salamanders of China and Japan are larger.”

Hellbenders breathe entirely through their skin as adults and eat mostly crayfish and other invertebrates.

According to Lohraff, hellbenders play essential roles in natural food webs and have been thriving in Ozark streams for a very long time until experiencing dramatic population decline in Missouri in recent decades.

“Populations in all known streams they inhabit in Missouri have been declining since the 1980s. We suspect multiple stressors contribute to population declines, such as deteriorating water quality and habitat degradation, due to changing stream dynamics,” Lohraff said. “Fort Leonard Wood’s streams are important to humans for many reasons — Hellbenders act like a proverbial canary in the coal mine — we value their long-term sustainability in our healthy streams.”

The hellbenders released at Fort Leonard Wood were born 130 miles away at the St. Louis Zoo.

“These animals originated from wild-collected eggs in the same river system to protect their unique genetic diversity. They were given a five-year head start at the Saint Louis Zoo to increase their chances of survival when returned to their native habitat. Captive rearing is part of the conservation strategy for this species and the St. Louis Zoo has been at the forefront of scientific research and species recovery efforts,” Lohraff said.

In addition to partnering with the zoo, Lohraff said Fort Leonard Wood’s Natural Resources Branch works closely with the MDoC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate hellbender monitoring and management.

“We maintain excellent conservation partnerships with these agencies. We benefit by their expertise and guidance to help better manage ecosystems and imperiled species on the installation, so that we may maintain biodiversity and sustainable, functioning ecosystems and remain responsible stewards of our precious military lands and natural resources that sustain and support the military mission indefinitely,” Lohraff explained.

Charged with the care of 117 species of amphibians and reptiles in Missouri, Jeff Briggler, an MDoC herpetologist, said he is interested to see how technology can better track hellbenders.

The hellbenders released at Fort Leonard Wood have Passive Integrated Transponders, commonly called PIT tags, embedded in their tails.

“Each animal gets a unique number. With the tags, we can track the whole history of the animal. We know where the eggs were collected, where they were released and now, we can track where they move,” Briggler said. “We can also keep track of size and diseases with this identification.”

Briggler is most excited to get a better idea of how long they live.

“Currently, the record for hellbenders is 30 to 35 years, but I have marked more than 1,400 hellbenders in Missouri the last 25 years. In the future, when they are scanned, I bet they break the 35-year record with this tag system. It would not surprise me if they could live 40 to 45 years,” Briggler said.

This is the second release of juvenile hellbenders on Fort Leonard Wood, according to Lohraff.

“We value each endemic species that helps maintain ecological balance. Fort Leonard Wood is home to four other federally endangered species besides the Eastern Hellbender: Northern long-eared bat, gray bat, Indiana bat, and spectaclecase mussel,” Lohraff said. “We strive for responsible stewardship of military lands to support healthy ecosystems that maintain the military mission, long term. It is paramount to maintain biodiversity on the training landscape to maintain ecosystem function for long-term sustainability of the lands.”

Briggler said, “if you see a hellbender, leave it alone,” because they just like to stay on the bottom and hide.

“If you accidently catch one while fishing the best thing to do is remove the hook. If you can’t do that, at least cut the line off, and we hope the hook will rust out,” Briggler added.

To learn more about hellbender restoration in Missouri, visit the Missouri Department of Conservation’s website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About Fort Leonard Wood

Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post more than 75 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains more than 80,000 military and civilians each year.

Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.

Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.