MARION, N.C. (Sept. 6, 2012) — Breeding Eastern hellbenders in
captivity isn’t for the faint of heart. For one thing, these
odd-looking animals, also called “water dogs” or “snot otters,”
are notoriously difficult to keep in captivity. For another,
they’re relatively hard to find in the wild, including North
Carolina where they’re protected and listed as a species of
special concern, so obtaining animals for captive breeding can
be quite difficult. But those factors aren’t deterring
biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Working
cooperatively with the N.C. Zoo, the Wildlife Commission is
trying to raise to sexual maturity 10 juvenile hellbenders that
it received from a Texas zoo in June,with the ultimate goal of
breeding them in captivity to create more hellbenders.
Biologists are not interested in propagating hellbenders to
augment wild populations, but rather to meet the increasing
demand for these large, aquatic salamanders as educational and
display animals for qualified state agencies, u