CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In May, a team from the Chattanooga Zoo in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and Lee University released 31 Eastern Hellbender Salamanders in the Cherokee National Forest.
This is part of the zoo’s Hellbender Headstart program, which aims to rehabilitate the disappearing local hellbender population.
This is the largest conservation program at the zoo. Efforts begin when hellbender larvae are collected in the wild to be raised at the Chattanooga Zoo.
“They collect eggs and juveniles when they're at their most vulnerable,” said Kate Gore, Chattanooga Zoo Animal Care Supervisor. “They bring them here, and then we raise them up to where they get out of that vulnerable stage and we can release them.”
Gore said it was amazing to see these hellbenders released last month.
"To see this actually happen, to make it work and to see these animals that we helped raise go out there and be a part of the world… it's an amazing feeling,” Gore said.
Gore said conservation programs like this are so important because hellbenders are a crucial part of the ecosystem.
"They actually will eat a lot of the aquatic invertebrates and bugs that are around the system, around all the waterways,” Gore said.
Gore asks people to do their part in protecting the hellbenders by not stacking rocks along waterways.
“When it comes to hellbenders, this is not a good thing,” Gore said. “Hellbenders, out in the wild, they actually will live under rocks. If you're taking away these rocks and stacking them, there's a good possibility they could fall they could crush baby hellbenders.”
Gore said the Chattanooga Zoo is already preparing for the release next year.
“We've already had another egg mass delivered. They've already hatched. They're growing very fast,” Gore said. “We actually received some juveniles almost eight months ago. Those are also being raised as well.”
The public is invited to visit the Chattanooga Zoo’s Hiwassee Hellbender Research and Education facility on Zoo grounds on Saturdays and Sundays from 3:30-4:00 p.m.
This story was originally reported by Local 3 News in Chattanooga.
