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Evaluating artificial shelter arrays as a minimally invasive monitoring tool for the hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)
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Hellbenders Cryptobranchus alleganiensis are critically imperiled amphibians throughout the eastern USA. Rock-lifting is widely used to monitor hellbenders but can severely disturb habitat. We asked whether artificial shelter occupancy (the proportion of occupied shelters in an array) would function as a proxy for hellbender abundance and there by serve as a viable alternative to rock-lifting. We hypothesized that shelter occupancy would vary spatially in response to hellbender density, natural shelter density, or both, and would vary temporally with hellbender
seasonal activity patterns and time since shelter deployment. We established shelter arrays (n = 30 shelters each) in 6 stream reaches and monitored them monthly for up to 2 yr. We used Bayesian mixed logistic regression and model ranking criteria to assess support for hypotheses concerning drivers of shelter occupancy. In all reaches, shelter occupancy was highest from June–August each year and was higher in Year 2 relative to Year 1. Our best-supported model indicated that the extent of boulder and bedrock (hereafter, natural shelter) in a reach mediated the relationship between hellbender abundance and shelter occupancy. More explicitly, shelter occupancy was positively correlated with abundance when natural shelter covered <20% of a reach, but uncorrelated with abundance when natural shelter was more abundant. While shelter occupancy should not be used to infer variation in hellbender relative abundance when substrate composition varies among reaches, we showed that artificial shelters can function as valuable monitoring tools when reaches meet certain criteria, though regular shelter maintenance is critical.
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Research
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Artificial Nest Box Research
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Improving the Utility of Artificial Shelters for Monitoring Eastern Hellbender Salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganienses alleganiensis)
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Artificial shelters show great promise as novel, non-invasive tools for studying
hellbenders, but their use thus far has faced several challenges. During initial trials in multiple
river networks, artificial shelters routinely became blocked by sediment and dislodged during
high stream discharge events, and were rarely used by hellbenders. We sought to determine
whether these complications could be overcome via alternative shelter design, placement, and
maintenance. Between 2013 and 2018, we deployed 438 artificial shelters of two different
designs across ten stream reaches and three rivers in the upper Tennessee River Basin. We
assessed evidence for several hypotheses, postulating broadly that the availability, stability, and
use of artificial shelters by hellbenders would depend on how shelters were constructed,
deployed, and/or maintained. We found that maintaining shelters at least once every 40 days
limited sediment blockage, and building ~ 40 kg shelters with 3-4 cm thick walls and recessed
lids improved their stability during high discharge events. Additionally, we found that
hellbenders most frequently occupied and nested in artificial shelters when they were deployed
in deeper (~50+ cm) portions of reaches with high adult hellbender densities. Our results suggest
that artificial shelters can serve as effective tools for studying hellbenders when designed,
deployed, and maintained with these advancements, but also highlight some limitations of their
use.
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Research
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Artificial Nest Box Research
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Learn All About Hellbenders and Take a Tour
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Do you know what a hellbender is or where they can be found? This live session will answer those questions for you, show you what they look like by taking you on a virtual tour, share where they live, what they like to eat and who their predators are.
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Online Training Resources
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Webinars and Videos
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Landscape Partnership Learning Network
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Self-paced virtual tutorials and classes available for practitioners and producers/landowners. The Learning Network is designed to help conservation partners, managers, and landowners learn how to use and adapt resources and tools and plan on-the-ground conservation. Once courses are completed, users can work with Landscape Partnership staff directly to discuss how to incorporate these products in their own efforts.
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Online Training Resources
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Training Resources
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Field Day at Mountain Research Station
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The Field Day at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, NC will be a great event for agricultural producers to get the latest updates on agricultural research and to see the latest and best available tools and equipment at the trade show. The NRCS Partner Biologists for the Hellbender Working Lands for Wildlife Initiative will be in attendance with information about the program.
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News & Events
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Eastern Hellbender Workshops
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National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Awards $1.3 Million in Grants to Conserve Habitat in the Southeast’s Cumberland Plateau
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Seven projects will preserve forest and stream habitats, benefiting game species, forest-dependent birds, and fish and mussel species
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News & Events
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Eastern Hellbender News
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Southeastern Hellbender Conservation Initiative
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The Southeastern Hellbender Conservation Initiative (SEHCI), a collaboration between Defenders of Wildlife, NRCS and other conservation partners to support farmers using conservation practices on their lands that help restore hellbender habitat.
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Partners
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Add an Organization
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife denies Endangered Species Act protection for eastern hellbenders
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Just as the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has called on the public to help locate and document sightings of the declining population of eastern hellbender salamanders to help in recovery efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to list the salamander as an endangered species.
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News & Events
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Eastern Hellbender News
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Researchers study eastern hellbender salamanders parental habits
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Unlike most wildlife species, male hellbenders provide exclusive care for their young for an extended period of seven months.
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News & Events
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Eastern Hellbender News
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Virginia Tech Researchers Receive NSF Grant to Study Parental Care in Eastern Hellbender Salamanders
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William Hopkins, professor of wildlife in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, is the principal investigator on a new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for $738,817 to study parental care in the eastern hellbender salamander.
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News & Events
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Eastern Hellbender News
