Outdoors: Collaborative effort carried hellbenders through lockdown

Apr. 20—When the pandemic hit just over a year ago, the buses stopped rolling in every morning, the lights were turned off and the doors locked, and schools were closed. So officials at the Toledo Zoo and Penta Career Center had to quickly improvise and develop a plan to protect a precious group of adoptees that were in their joint custody.

These 100 individuals required daily care, close monitoring, and a steady diet. This would not be easy, since the 100 were hellbenders, the largest salamander in North America and one that is native to the clean, swift streams of the Ohio River watershed.

As active participants in the Ohio Hellbender Partnership, the zoo and Penta were responsible for this congress of endangered amphibians that were being raised in more than two dozen aquarium-style tanks in a special room on the Rossford campus. The site was modified and equipped to house the hellbenders and make their stewardship a part of the Small Animal Care program at Penta.

"This was something nobody probably ever considered," said Kent Bekker, senior vice president and chief mission officer at the zoo. "No one could have anticipated a day when the school suddenly would be closed and not letting students and educators in. Fortunately, that facility has video surveillance, so we could remotely check in on them and monitor the temperatures in the tanks."

Penta instructor Nicole Costello and other teachers at the facility helped with the care initially, but the zoo soon took over. Since the hellbender care facility is separate from the main Penta building, it could be accessed with a badge without requiring the caregivers to enter the closed school.

"When this pandemic hit there was so much that was unknown, but the school felt it was better at the time to have the zoo come in, provide the daily care, and leave," Costello said. "The school felt it was best for us to have the zoo handle it."

The zoo staff was babysitting some precious and oftentimes pugnacious creatures. Hellbenders tend to get more ornery as they develop from juveniles into adults, requiring more tanks and more room, so zoos, schools and even prisons have been utilized in the effort to restore their numbers.

Hellbenders had experienced a drastic decline in their numbers in recent decades, including a more than 80 percent reduction in the Ohio hellbender population. This decline was likely due to degradation of their native streams because of development and agricultural runoff, pollution, and the loss of habitat. Biologists noticed that hellbender young were experiencing very high mortality rates in the wild due to predation, so they began collecting eggs that could be raised in a controlled environment.

But because of the impact predators were having on the young salamanders, the program keeps the young hellbenders in captivity until they are 3 years old and much better equipped to fend for themselves in the wild. When the pandemic restrictions hit, the hellbenders at Penta were too young to be set free.

"Early release was not an option," Bekker said, "so the decision was made to not bring them to the zoo, but instead leave them where they were and work out a plan to care for them at Penta. They have such a nice setup over there, it made sense to keep them in place."

Bekker, who helped with the hellbender care at Penta, said the feeding ritual involved thawing out the shrimp and krill to feed the hellbenders, verifying that the pumps and temperature controls were functioning properly, maintaining the water levels, and cleaning the tanks.

The 100 or so hellbenders at Penta survived and even thrived during the extended lockdown as representatives from the zoo and volunteers from the school shared the nurturing and shepherding responsibilities. By late summer, the hellbenders had reached the 3-year-old level and were ready for release into one of their native Ohio streams.

"This past year was a testament to the value of that partnership with Penta," Bekker said. "And the cooperation during a difficult time for all of us — that's one of the reasons why this relationship works so well."

Biologists from the zoo and Ohio State University transported the Penta salamanders to a release site and placed the now-adult hellbenders in suitable habitat, usually in open spaces under large rocks in the middle of the waterway.

There they will eat crayfish and insects, swim while propelled by their large, powerful tail, and breathe through the gill-like folds in their skin. The hope is that these hellbenders that have been raised in captivity will help stabilize their threatened population.

Costello said the downside of the 2020 release was that her students did not get to participate, again due to coronavirus-related restrictions. She said previous hellbender releases have been celebratory events for the students, who quickly become invested in the hellbender program.

"That was really unfortunate since normally my students are so excited to be there and take part in the release," Costello said. "These students have spent a year in that room, working and caring for the hellbenders, and the release is their big reward for all of that work. Everything builds toward that day when we can put them into their historical streams."

Prior to the August release, Costello emailed the students updates on the hellbenders' progress, and she then took a video camera along when the salamanders were placed in the streams. Her students received a link to view the videos of the release.

"There wasn't all of the excitement and energy surrounding the release because the students weren't there," Costello said, "but the hellbenders were healthy and placed in good habitat where they can hopefully thrive and strengthen the species, and that's the main goal behind everything we do for them."

Penta received a new group of juvenile hellbenders last fall and will be caring for those animals until they are ready for release. The school opened to reduced numbers of students in August, and Costello had to adjust the schedule in order to maintain the recommended distancing in the relatively tight quarters of the lab, but the feeding, cleaning, disinfecting, and nurturing of these rare amphibians has continued.

"Being involved in the hellbender program has provided our students with so many valuable lessons," Costello said. "They are learning about water quality and biosecurity, and developing empathy for these creatures. You can't experience those things in a book, so I think we are really creating stewards for life."

First Published April 19, 2021, 2:43pm