At up to two and a half feet in length, Eastern hellbenders can be an impressive sight. These aquatic salamanders are found in Appalachian streams, and have declined to the point that they’ve been considered for addition to the federal endangered species list. Despite their size, they’re harmless to people, and in fact help by serving as indicator species – the health of hellbender populations is an indicator of stream health.

Because of their conservation importance, biologists often keep tabs on hellbenders. Biologists from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. Division of Water Resources, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, North Carolina Zoo, Appalachian State University, and Virginia Zoo recently surveyed hellbenders in a handful of mountain streams.

Once the biologists captured a hellbender, they measured and weighed it; determined its sex; swabbed its skin to test for chytrid fungus which is responsible for massive, widespread amphibians deaths; tagged it with a Passive Integrated Transponder, or PIT, tag, providing the animal with a unique identifier - just like micro-chipping your pet; and finally took a small clip of tail tissue to track genetics.