Cool Animal of the Week #4- The Ozark Hellbender

Photo by Stan Trauth

The Ozark hell bender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) is an endangered salamander living northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. They can live 25 to 30 years in the wild and grow to 2 feet long- which makes it one of the largest in the world! They have interesting nicknames that include "snot otter" and "old lasagna sides".  The decline of the Ozark hellbender is being attributed to habitat decline and infection by a disease caused by the chytrid fungus. It is estimated that only 600 individuals remain in the wild.


For more information, here is a page from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and here is an article about the conservation efforts for the Ozark hellbender.

Picking and Choosing

I came across an interesting article regarding the conservation of threatened and endangered species. The problem is that there are so many species that are heading for extinction, are nearly extinct or are already extinct. Yes, it is true that species naturally die out (trilobites, anyone?) but the distinction today is that the rate of extinction is far higher than the natural background rate of extinction. Fun fact from my graduate ecology class: Naturally, a few species go extinct every couple of million years. The extinction rate today is much higher, coming out to the loss of about 3 species every hour.

And sure, there are countless species that we haven't described yet, so we don't even know the full scope and scale of current species loss.

The problem with trying to save all of the endangered species really goes back to the basics of competition. There aren't enough resources in the wild for all organisms to get what they need. So, the best competitors win and survive, while the poor competitors lose, and do not survive. There isn't enough money to go around and save the polar bears, and the pandas, and the whales, and the birds, and the frogs, and the Javan rhinos,..... and so on. I hate to say it, but at this point we need to allocate our resources wisely, and help the species that.... well, wait a second, what criteria do we use? Have the best chance of reestablishing themselves? Provides the most benefit to the ecosystem? Those that are the cheapest and least complicated to help?

In my opinion, with regards to the future, we need to change our ways. We need to reduce our impact on the environment- the deforestation, the pollution, the land reclamation, the alteration of the landscape and hydrology. Stop doing the things that are leading to the loss of species in the first place!

But why should we care about how many species there are on planet earth? A lot of biodiversity and abundance of species equals better ecosystem functioning, because there are enough individuals to fit into each niche of the ecosystem. For more on why ecosystem functioning is so important, I've already got a blog post about it.