The Specialist
Zachary Boykin | December 2017
Living in the mountains of southern Appalachia, a five minute walk from your backdoor can turn into a five hour exploration. With a wide range of habitats and climates, southern Appalachia alone is home to nearly 10,000 different species with new discoveries being made yearly. It's a nature lovers dream and I find myself right in the middle of it all. This was my first summer in Boone and I tried to make the most of it. On days where I didn't work my pizza delivery job, Me and my friends would make the trek out of town and right into the heart of Appalachia. We went everywhere from the peaks of the Blue Ridge Parkway to the hollers of Tennessee and back.
Me and three friends took a river day and went down to a place called Trashcan Falls where we planned to swim, play frisbee, jump cliffs and whatever else we saw fit for fun times. After about an hour of flips into the water we were feeling a little break in the action, so we went to go sit by a shallow creek. Sitting on the river bank with my bare feet in the chilly crystal clear water. I noticed an abundance of little fishies swimming about. I tell my friends and soon were all in the water checking out these little minnow looking fish. “I think I see a big one over there under that rock” my friend Ashton says, so I get up and move towards it. As I get close the rock pops out little feet and starts to scurry off. No I wasn't tripping , and it wasn't a rock at all. It was a gigantic brownish blackish looking fish lizard. This fish lizard was indeed the mighty Hellbender.
With a name like hellbender you know they are probably pretty badass. The Hellbender is actually largest salamander in all of North America and can be found near streams and rivers along the east coast ranging from New York down to Alabama. They can grow up to 2 feet long and can weigh more than 4 pounds when fully developed. It is the 3rd largest salamander in the world after only the Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders. Hellbenders tent to be solitary animals not commonly seen by people, but very much affected by them. They absorb oxygen from their skin, so they tend to be in only clean cool waters and can be seen as an indicator species because they have very specialized habitats and are vulnerable if change occurs.
In my 21 years of living I had never seen anything like this animal. I was able to get the slippery little sucker in my hands, and as I held it right about the stream I was in amazement. I love lizards and salamanders and think the graceful wiggles make then look like neat little dragons with own little personas. This little guy wasn't all that little. It was probably just under a foot long and maybe weighed about a pound. I don't think he was fully grown but he was a feisty guy. Me and my other friend passed him around for a minute or two before we released him back. He was awesome, we named him Gus The Bus.
We put him back and sat him next to some crayfish we saw, but I guess Gus wasn't hungry because he paid it no minds and started to make his way down stream. In recent years hellbenders have been under threat due to habitat loss and pollution. Since they breathe through their skin they need to be in clean water. Whenever humans develop in these mountain stream areas it can actually wipe out a population of hellbenders. Whether it be from actually flatining or draining of streams or from runoff from building and waste a change in the hellbenders habitat could lead to bad things for these mysterious creatures.
After we let Gus go, we couldn't stop talking about hellbenders and salamanders in general. Appalachia is a salamander hot spot, but that by far was my favorite salamanders I’ve ever seen. It made me think about the lives of salamanders and the life of a hellbender in particularly. I did some research when I got home and learned that the hellbender is more than just a giant cool looking salamander, but the so called “snot otter” also plays a big role in stabilizing certain habitats.
The hellbender is considered a habitat specialist. It has adapted to fill a specific niche within a very specific environment, and is labeled as such because its success is dependent on a constancy of dissolved oxygen, temperature and flow found in swift water areas. Within this area the hellbender is both a predator and prey, helping to stabilize populations within the ecosystem, proving to be a vital contributor for ecosystem health. With such a narrow range for habitable conditions the hellbender has seen its populations decline ever since the first human contact. And with global warming, temperatures rising, and increased development and pollution the hellbender will probably continue to decline in numbers.
After our experience with the giant salamander on that June day, I have a new respect for the mighty hellbender. Every time I go out to a river now I have my eyes peeled for one of my new favorite animals. If I ever see another hellbender in the wild again I will show the intriguing creature off to anyone that will listen and hope that they find it as cool as I do. More people should know about this amazing beast and learn what we can do to keep our streams clean and keep the Hellbender protected so its wonders can be seen by many generations to come.
Zachary Boykin | December 2017
Living in the mountains of southern Appalachia, a five minute walk from your backdoor can turn into a five hour exploration. With a wide range of habitats and climates, southern Appalachia alone is home to nearly 10,000 different species with new discoveries being made yearly. It's a nature lovers dream and I find myself right in the middle of it all. This was my first summer in Boone and I tried to make the most of it. On days where I didn't work my pizza delivery job, Me and my friends would make the trek out of town and right into the heart of Appalachia. We went everywhere from the peaks of the Blue Ridge Parkway to the hollers of Tennessee and back.
Me and three friends took a river day and went down to a place called Trashcan Falls where we planned to swim, play frisbee, jump cliffs and whatever else we saw fit for fun times. After about an hour of flips into the water we were feeling a little break in the action, so we went to go sit by a shallow creek. Sitting on the river bank with my bare feet in the chilly crystal clear water. I noticed an abundance of little fishies swimming about. I tell my friends and soon were all in the water checking out these little minnow looking fish. “I think I see a big one over there under that rock” my friend Ashton says, so I get up and move towards it. As I get close the rock pops out little feet and starts to scurry off. No I wasn't tripping , and it wasn't a rock at all. It was a gigantic brownish blackish looking fish lizard. This fish lizard was indeed the mighty Hellbender.
With a name like hellbender you know they are probably pretty badass. The Hellbender is actually largest salamander in all of North America and can be found near streams and rivers along the east coast ranging from New York down to Alabama. They can grow up to 2 feet long and can weigh more than 4 pounds when fully developed. It is the 3rd largest salamander in the world after only the Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders. Hellbenders tent to be solitary animals not commonly seen by people, but very much affected by them. They absorb oxygen from their skin, so they tend to be in only clean cool waters and can be seen as an indicator species because they have very specialized habitats and are vulnerable if change occurs.
In my 21 years of living I had never seen anything like this animal. I was able to get the slippery little sucker in my hands, and as I held it right about the stream I was in amazement. I love lizards and salamanders and think the graceful wiggles make then look like neat little dragons with own little personas. This little guy wasn't all that little. It was probably just under a foot long and maybe weighed about a pound. I don't think he was fully grown but he was a feisty guy. Me and my other friend passed him around for a minute or two before we released him back. He was awesome, we named him Gus The Bus.
We put him back and sat him next to some crayfish we saw, but I guess Gus wasn't hungry because he paid it no minds and started to make his way down stream. In recent years hellbenders have been under threat due to habitat loss and pollution. Since they breathe through their skin they need to be in clean water. Whenever humans develop in these mountain stream areas it can actually wipe out a population of hellbenders. Whether it be from actually flatining or draining of streams or from runoff from building and waste a change in the hellbenders habitat could lead to bad things for these mysterious creatures.
After we let Gus go, we couldn't stop talking about hellbenders and salamanders in general. Appalachia is a salamander hot spot, but that by far was my favorite salamanders I’ve ever seen. It made me think about the lives of salamanders and the life of a hellbender in particularly. I did some research when I got home and learned that the hellbender is more than just a giant cool looking salamander, but the so called “snot otter” also plays a big role in stabilizing certain habitats.
The hellbender is considered a habitat specialist. It has adapted to fill a specific niche within a very specific environment, and is labeled as such because its success is dependent on a constancy of dissolved oxygen, temperature and flow found in swift water areas. Within this area the hellbender is both a predator and prey, helping to stabilize populations within the ecosystem, proving to be a vital contributor for ecosystem health. With such a narrow range for habitable conditions the hellbender has seen its populations decline ever since the first human contact. And with global warming, temperatures rising, and increased development and pollution the hellbender will probably continue to decline in numbers.
After our experience with the giant salamander on that June day, I have a new respect for the mighty hellbender. Every time I go out to a river now I have my eyes peeled for one of my new favorite animals. If I ever see another hellbender in the wild again I will show the intriguing creature off to anyone that will listen and hope that they find it as cool as I do. More people should know about this amazing beast and learn what we can do to keep our streams clean and keep the Hellbender protected so its wonders can be seen by many generations to come.