A Hellbender First for Tennessee

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee State University, Nashville Zoo and others are partnering to preserve wildlife in Tennessee. Hellbender salamanders are protected in the state and in some areas populations are declining. The Zoo has raised a group of hellbenders in captivity for the last six years. Now these reclusive critters will be released into the watershed from where they were taken in an effort to bolster the numbers and possibly stimulate breeding resulting in new recruitment.
tnwildlife.org #tnwildlife #thenashvillezoo #tennesseestateuniversity

[@acedexotics]

Just amazing. I’d love to be able to donate my time to help with native wildlife protection etc one day here in Tennessee. Glad y’all are keeping track of our wild populations, and taking measures to preserve their species.

[@tnwildlife]

👏

[@Secret4u2hear]

Hello from middle Tennessee 👋

[@jonathanb3177]

Water dogs is what we called them

[@shemunger2801]

Awesome work!

[@user-xx2vu6xl3s]

The problems with losing the immature Hellbenders has to be largely due to predators. Fur prices no longer encourage a fur harvest, so our streams are now crawling with an over population of predators like Raccoon, Mink, and Otter. All of these certainly prey on young and maybe even adult Hellbenders.

[@fnfal308Rhino]

What does the hellbender do? Whats its purpose?

[@andybaker5466]

To live!

[@nonesoherpetological8974]

To be the most amazing animal in the world.

[@alexcarter8807]

They bend hell, silly.

[@maxbennettcollegestuff]

hell benders are a "indicator species", meaning if they are found in an environment, it shows that it is thriving, and has not been too effected by pollution. they also help keep the crayfish population in control, along with many other benefits to the overall environment. i hope this helps :)