Eastern Hellbender; short doc on the largest freshwater salamander in North America

[mudpuppy]

And this weird little beast happens to be the inspiration for my nickname.  This is beautifully shot with some great footage of this rather ugly salamander.  Informative too, in that while I knew that lost of run off from farms, deforestation was altering stream beds.  But I didn't really know how it was impacting hellbenders by filling in their 'homes' between the rocks.  I'm a little ashamed to admit that I have also been guilty in the past of moving rocks in stream beds when my kids and I used to play in our river.  I had no idea the impact that may be having.  

 

http://vimeo.com/wemayfly/thelastdragons

 

Fun to watch and if you live here in these mountains, please pass along the lessons about how disturbing the rocks in a stream bed may impact mudpuppies and other critters.

Regards,

Derek

[Leaf]

I wouldn't call them cute, but they're pretty awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

I actually did my major thesis in amphibians and still have a huge soft spot for them. Hellbenders are really neat critters!

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

I love documentaries like these. I wish someone would do one on my preferred game fish, the pikes. We did have that hilarious MonsterQuest one about freshwater monsters in which they made a huge deal about a Northern biting a guy wading in shin-deep water as if it were some utterly incredible thing. People do grossly overlook the wonderful bounty of fauna within freshwater lakes.