@@randy4768 Mudpuppies are actually a different species! They can live in similar habitats, but mudpuppies are smaller (and have other distinguishing characteristics)
Worth while cause. An amazing creature. I has been lucky to have been around them my whole life. The difference in the Hellbender and common mud puppies is obvious. I have one unbelievable memory of one 60 years ago that was the color orange that small salamanders are but without the black spots. I've never heard of another sighting. It was such a sight crawling up stream on the bottom of the cold Appalachian stream that the memory my brother and I in new waders is one of my TREASURES!
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s we had a camp house on the Ohio River and my 3 brothers and myself would see water dogs and only caught a couple each summer, but it was such a big deal when one of us caught one. There’s so many gorgeous creeks and streams in Kentucky and I have always loved playing in creeks .😊
As a teenager in the early '60's we would find these kind of big old "Water Dogs" in year round cold water streams near the coast south of Newport, Oregon. These same streams had salmon runs on occasion, the Water Dogs would get up to 18" > 22" in length and weigh in at a couple pounds.
We always called them "water dogs" when catching them here and there on the New River. It has been years since I have seen one. Cool to see more of them.
Fantastic to see this. I explore cricks and rivers in the Appalachians all the time and I’ve still never seen a hellbender. Hope to see them make a rebound in my lifetime =]
Awesome, for sure! Back in the early 70's these critters were in the creeks in my neighborhood (Decoy). They were so plentiful that some people ate them. I really would love to see them make a comeback.
I caught one when I was a kid in Indiana, in Ripley County, that creek is now silted in and almost disappeared. We also had one about 15 inches long in a jar in our Milan Indiana school biology lab.
I grew up in the Cincinnati area and explored the woodlands and creeks around my home. Salamanders and crawfish were pretty abundant. Snakes also. A local biology teacher would buy snakes from me that I managed to catch. He would also eat a cockroach for a dollar, grossing out the classroom. Mr. Mcduffey had alligators as pets, one of them had the run of his classroom. It was about three feet long and very tame. I tried to catch a blue racer (snake) to sell to him for a whole summer. Never caught the racer, it was too fast by the
Our poor sick and polluted waters..... Back in the.middl sixties I was about 13....We stayed at my great aunt Bunnies',log two story house for the summer...It was located in the Brown County,. Indiana.. The happiest summer I ever had... Me and my brothers roamed the extensive creeks that were just filled with fish,frogs, and turtles... They were glad to see us go!!!Best time I ever had growing up....💖 I went there about twenty years later and it was all sgas. Stations and motel after.motel.....💔💔💔💔😞
Unfortunetly due to unsustainable construction and farming pracitces, our streams are dying. Kids 20 years from now will never know the awesome wildlife and nature we have right now if we dont change our ways.
I caught one of these while fishing in 1981 in Greenup County Ky. My dad called the game warden and they both geeked out over it and then turned it loose back into the east fork of the Little Sandy River.
Wish more people knew that money from fishing and hunting tags goes back to conservation. Something I like to point out to vegans and other uneducated people
@@seribas and all the poachers (unless you’re poor as shit in the country and need food, I could really care less if you’re not being needlessly wasteful). One thing I’d like to see is how my state, Iowa, allocates the funds they receive because I know we make a huge amount of money on whitetail tags and associated liscences, yet the species has been extremely overpopulated ever since I can remember, which makes me thinks there’s other incentives due to funding going towards other programs, so they try to rake in as much money as possible without regard to conservation, road safety, etc. Idk, I know my state is bottom of the barrel for conservation, water quality and similar metrics so maybe I shouldn’t be looking to Iowa as an example of how these programs would normally be handled.
Back in the 70s we would see them in rivers in Missouri regularly. Some as big as a foot long. Fast forward to the 90s and they were non existent. My dad told stories of seeing them upwards of 3 feet long. He called them water dogs. Unfortunately he also told stories of people who would gig them or otherwise kill them. People thought they were like a super predator or something killing fish.
It's been over 60 years since I've seen a hellbender. I was with Daddy, we were catching crawdads for bait, he caught a hellbender and told me what it was. Ugly scary looking thing for a little boy.
Spanish explorers were amazed by Hellbenders and really scared of them. They were larger at that time too. So glad to see being recued. BTW. The biggest he'll benders are found in Japan.
The Japanese giant salamander can grow to 3 feet long. There's also a much prettier, almost alien looking salamander with a smiling face called an axolotl that is only found in one lake near Mexico City and grows up to 16" long.
I once was told, in a river in the North Carolina mountains, to pick up that “mud puppy”. It was a lizard under the water. Turns out, it was a hell bender!! Tell me that and I never would have picked that little muscle up! Fun story though. Virgin forests in North Carolina!! Check it out!!
Hellbenders hunt predomenently crayfish and act as an apex predator in their ecosystems. They are also a great key stone species and you can tell how healthy an ecosystem is based on how the hellbender population is doing. Also they are just pretty cool if you ask me.
This type of work is very important, we must work on reversing the damage our unsustainable life style has had on our ecosystems so our children can experience the nature we currently have.
Greatly applaud the effort but if numbers have been declining in the wild population then addressing and finding solutions to those causes first would be required to maintain the species as a viable self replenishing population.
I caught one once while fishing in lake Cumberland in Clinton County across from 76 falls. It was probably 15 years ago. It was about a foot long. I just cut the line and let it go. I googled it when I got home and found out that it was a hellbender. Only one I've ever seen.
I caught one in a creek in WV once, when I pulled it out I thought I had caught a catfish, then it spun on the line and it had creepy little hands and feet~~~Yikes!
They tend to be good indicators of water quality due to their fully aquatic lifestyle and sensitivity to environmental stressors. They also primarily eat crayfish and have been successful in catching invasives like Rusty crayfish
My uncle from Kansas had a Hellbender get hold of his pants leg and shake it! Since he didn’t see it until it turned him loose it scared him half to death😂
Has something changed to give them a better chance? If they couldn't maintain their population before what makes people think that this temporary boost will last?
The boost is to create a decent adult population while they work on fixing the issues causing the young to be unable to survive. They can also come back and remove the eggs to raise young in the future.
“ Hellbender” might just be the coolest name for any animal, ever !
We called them mud puppies.
I was thinking it was a metal band at first.
@@randy4768 Mudpuppies are actually a different species! They can live in similar habitats, but mudpuppies are smaller (and have other distinguishing characteristics)
A name given to them by the ignorant, and superstitious.
@@markkubiak8296 good try at acting like you're intelligent..your claim is totally baseless
Worth while cause. An amazing creature. I has been lucky to have been around them my whole life.
The difference in the Hellbender and common mud puppies is obvious. I have one unbelievable memory of one 60 years ago that was the color orange that small salamanders are but without the black spots. I've never heard of another sighting.
It was such a sight crawling up stream on the bottom of the cold Appalachian stream that the memory my brother and I in new waders is one of my TREASURES!
I'm extremely happy seeing this. I've spent my entire life in the creeks and have never seen one . I hope I will in the future.
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s we had a camp house on the Ohio River and my 3 brothers and myself would see water dogs and only caught a couple each summer, but it was such a big deal when one of us caught one. There’s so many gorgeous creeks and streams in Kentucky and I have always loved playing in creeks .😊
I caught one in 81 in Greenup County Ky. The game warden was called and he called it a water dog too.
As a teenager in the early '60's we would find these kind of big old "Water Dogs" in year round cold water streams near the coast south of Newport, Oregon. These same streams had salmon runs on occasion, the Water Dogs would get up to 18" > 22" in length and weigh in at a couple pounds.
Kentucky is a Gem of a State in these United States!
Bravo Kentucky!!!!!
We always called them "water dogs" when catching them here and there on the New River. It has been years since I have seen one. Cool to see more of them.
Thanks for giving these guys coverage, great to see!!!
Very cool. It's been many years, but I saw Hellbenders a couple of times in Goose Creek near the Russell/Casey County line.
Terrific program. Kudos to everyone who is involved.
Haven't lived in Ky since 1991 prior to heading to the US Navy. So glad to see this happening in the Bluegrass state. Outstanding!
This is absolutely amazing!!! As an Indiana resident, Thank you!
This is so awesome, thanks everyone
This makes me so happy I absolutely love them. I do lots and lots of fishing and stumbled across a hellbender once it’s was super amazing looking.
Very cool! Great job Kentucky! Keep up the good work!
I get so excited when I see something I haven’t seen since I was a child. Good luck y’all.
Fantastic to see this. I explore cricks and rivers in the Appalachians all the time and I’ve still never seen a hellbender. Hope to see them make a rebound in my lifetime =]
Wonderful that people are helping these save rare, ancient creatures for posterity. Good on ya!
Awesome, for sure! Back in the early 70's these critters were in the creeks in my neighborhood (Decoy). They were so plentiful that some people ate them. I really would love to see them make a comeback.
What a great video to come across. Awesome work folks!
I caught one when I was a kid in Indiana, in Ripley County, that creek is now silted in and almost disappeared. We also had one about 15 inches long in a jar in our Milan Indiana school biology lab.
Sugar creek release would be awesome in Indiana! Ive always wanted to see one
This is really cool. I hope to see one in the wild someday.
I grew up in the Cincinnati area and explored the woodlands and creeks around my home. Salamanders and crawfish were pretty abundant. Snakes also. A local biology teacher would buy snakes from me that I managed to catch. He would also eat a cockroach for a dollar, grossing out the classroom. Mr. Mcduffey had alligators as pets, one of them had the run of his classroom. It was about three feet long and very tame. I tried to catch a blue racer (snake) to sell to him for a whole summer. Never caught the racer, it was too fast by the
I had a cool teacher like that in the 8th grade. The old woman changed my whole life.
Awesome work guys!
Great work guys! Please keep up the great work. BTW, what a cool name - Hellbenders!!!!!!
This is amazing, I have lived all over this state and I am always at the water, I have never seen one
Our poor sick and polluted waters..... Back in the.middl sixties I was about 13....We stayed at my great aunt Bunnies',log two story house for the summer...It was located in the Brown County,. Indiana.. The happiest summer I ever had... Me and my brothers roamed the extensive creeks that were just filled with fish,frogs, and turtles...
They were glad to see us go!!!Best time I ever had growing up....💖
I went there about twenty years later and it was all sgas. Stations and motel after.motel.....💔💔💔💔😞
Unfortunetly due to unsustainable construction and farming pracitces, our streams are dying. Kids 20 years from now will never know the awesome wildlife and nature we have right now if we dont change our ways.
My ex wife has moved to Kentucky and lives in a stream. Hellbender was one of the nicer names she had.
Oh, you definitely loved her 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bah hahahaha!!
Hellbender, the sixth element.
I feel your pain
Thin line between love and hell, I mean hate.
Good work guys! What a look critter
I caught one of these while fishing in 1981 in Greenup County Ky. My dad called the game warden and they both geeked out over it and then turned it loose back into the east fork of the Little Sandy River.
Very cool... great work.
It's nice to see people doing something smart in this world. To make it a better place.
From all the Hoosiers…
Thank you!!!
My female Beagle was bred out in Kentucky. Beautiful and super smart Beag.
Great job keeping these little guys thriving and in the wild where they belong
I remember reading about hellbenders when I was a kid and thinking they were super cool. This is great news!
This is the best thing about Kentucky.
Aww. I feel so good for these harmless little guys!
I grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We called these "Mudpuppys".
I remember catching these on this very creek
Glad to see this!
I don't have to buy a hunting license, but this is why I do. 👊
Wish more people knew that money from fishing and hunting tags goes back to conservation. Something I like to point out to vegans and other uneducated people
Even if you don't hunt or fish, everyone should buy a license to help support conservation!
@@seribas and all the poachers (unless you’re poor as shit in the country and need food, I could really care less if you’re not being needlessly wasteful). One thing I’d like to see is how my state, Iowa, allocates the funds they receive because I know we make a huge amount of money on whitetail tags and associated liscences, yet the species has been extremely overpopulated ever since I can remember, which makes me thinks there’s other incentives due to funding going towards other programs, so they try to rake in as much money as possible without regard to conservation, road safety, etc. Idk, I know my state is bottom of the barrel for conservation, water quality and similar metrics so maybe I shouldn’t be looking to Iowa as an example of how these programs would normally be handled.
Buy guns and ammo, too. The Pittman-Robertson act created an 11% excise tax on them that is earmarked for conservation.
Back in the 70s we would see them in rivers in Missouri regularly. Some as big as a foot long. Fast forward to the 90s and they were non existent. My dad told stories of seeing them upwards of 3 feet long. He called them water dogs. Unfortunately he also told stories of people who would gig them or otherwise kill them. People thought they were like a super predator or something killing fish.
Its always a shame hearing stories of people killing animals because they dont understand them
It's been over 60 years since I've seen a hellbender. I was with Daddy, we were catching crawdads for bait, he caught a hellbender and told me what it was. Ugly scary looking thing for a little boy.
That's super cool!
Super cool
I remember my Daddy mentioning "waterdogs". Curious if these are the same things!? Creepy looking little things!😁
I think they are kind of cool looking
I’ve heard them called snot otters.
I heard both names for same animal.
Yeah, water dogs and mud puppies.
Water dogs mud puppys are completely different species from hellbenders
Caught a few big ones at the Falls of the Ohio. Amazing creature and yes we released all of them back into the river!
That's awesome, keep it up!
I've seen one catching crawdads in Blue River in Indiana.
Caught one in n wv on powerbait a few yrs ago.
I catch these all the time on trot lines on Lake Ouchita in AR.
Awesome 💯
We used to catch these in the river near my old home in KY over in an area called Barbourville. Those boys bite.
There’s a bunch of these in Duck River in Tennessee, and their big…
Spanish explorers were amazed by Hellbenders and really scared of them. They were larger at that time too. So glad to see being recued. BTW. The biggest he'll benders are found in Japan.
The Japanese giant salamander can grow to 3 feet long. There's also a much prettier, almost alien looking salamander with a smiling face called an axolotl that is only found in one lake near Mexico City and grows up to 16" long.
Not many years ago the south fork of the kentucky river near Onieda was full of these.
I once was told, in a river in the North Carolina mountains, to pick up that “mud puppy”. It was a lizard under the water. Turns out, it was a hell bender!! Tell me that and I never would have picked that little muscle up! Fun story though. Virgin forests in North Carolina!! Check it out!!
Rewilding is such important work. Restoring a species, especially “keystone” species, has broad effects on the survival of many other species.
Their in Coopers creek in N.Georgia.
I love hellbenders!
This is great !!!!
What is their purpose or place in the stream? How are they beneficial, I didn't hear any of that addressed. What do they eat, what eats them?
Hellbenders hunt predomenently crayfish and act as an apex predator in their ecosystems. They are also a great key stone species and you can tell how healthy an ecosystem is based on how the hellbender population is doing. Also they are just pretty cool if you ask me.
I've caught them in Ohio river around Meldahl dam fishing for saugers, I take care to release them alive, very cool critters.
Awesome
This type of work is very important, we must work on reversing the damage our unsustainable life style has had on our ecosystems so our children can experience the nature we currently have.
Kudos........
Pretty impressive getting them reintroduced into the ecosystem.
How do they taste?
I wish more states would take this initative .
Greatly applaud the effort but if numbers have been declining in the wild population then addressing and finding solutions to those causes first would be required to maintain the species as a viable self replenishing population.
What a cool animal, I don’t know, if Arkansas has them?
These type of Hellbenders only live around the Appalachia area unfortunetly, but Arkansas has its own smaller species called the Ozark hellbender!
Cool animal!
I caught one once while fishing in lake Cumberland in Clinton County across from 76 falls. It was probably 15 years ago. It was about a foot long. I just cut the line and let it go. I googled it when I got home and found out that it was a hellbender. Only one I've ever seen.
Hell yeah 🎉
So do they taste good?
FASCINATING CRITTERS!!
There closest relatives are the Giant Salamanders of Japan and China;
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_salamander
Good work!!!
Can we get some hellbenders in Arkansas plz? They’re so cool.
Arkansas actually has its own species of hellbender called the Ozark Hellbender! Though they dont get as big as Eastern Hellbenders.
About time. Mud Puppies next?
Clicked on this vid since because I deliver hard alcohol. Not what I was expecting. Now I want to go fishing.
What is the life expectancy for a hellbender?
Awesome. Appalachia has the herps we want to keep
Wow
there in Pa. There nice creatures , keep to their selves and dont bother you when youre fishing and wading
A great project, but whatever is causing the decline hasn't gone away. Every time I hear about an effort like this, it gives me hope for the wild.
Good stuff protect one species and you protect a whole load of other species
I caught one in a creek in WV once, when I pulled it out I thought I had caught a catfish, then it spun on the line and it had creepy little hands and feet~~~Yikes!
Also known as a water dog....I've seen several I seen one once must of been 5lbs
A water dog is actually a different species, but they can live in similar habitats!
Nice
This looks similar to what is called a Mud Puppy in Wisconsin.
What are they good for
They’re part of the ecosystem.
Existing
They tend to be good indicators of water quality due to their fully aquatic lifestyle and sensitivity to environmental stressors. They also primarily eat crayfish and have been successful in catching invasives like Rusty crayfish
When I was a kid playing in Kentucky we used to call these mudpuppies!
Hopefully this works.
2 feet long that's a big salamander
My uncle from Kansas had a Hellbender get hold of his pants leg and shake it! Since he didn’t see it until it turned him loose it scared him half to death😂
We have got them with rod and reel.
Has something changed to give them a better chance? If they couldn't maintain their population before what makes people think that this temporary boost will last?
The boost is to create a decent adult population while they work on fixing the issues causing the young to be unable to survive. They can also come back and remove the eggs to raise young in the future.
Members of the Fire Nation?
I caught one in the Ohio river the size of a small dog.......