The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy found a new population of hellbender salamanders in Butler County.

Researchers came up empty looking for the salamander, which can grow to more than two feet long, in the Kiski and Youghiogheny rivers and some other locations this summer, according to Eric Chapman, director of aquatic science for the conservancy.

Chapman’s team didn’t find a hellbender this year, but another conservancy crew conducting stream stabilization work in an unnamed waterway in Butler County this summer found a new “surprise” population of the sometimes elusive salamander, according to Chapman.

“That goes to show that we are still finding new populations,” he said.

The presence of the recently designated state amphibian is indicative of clean water. Given the state’s history of water pollution and cleaner water these days, the conservancy and others are trying to understand where the hellbender lives.

“You can’t protect them if you don’t know where they are,” Chapman said.

It is illegal to take hellbenders, and researchers need a scientific collectors’ permit to survey for them, he said.

Pennsylvania has some of the best populations of hellbenders in the world, according to Chapman, because of water quality, rocky substrate in waterways and an ample crayfish population.

In the Kiski River, where a hellbender was reported in 2017, the crew didn’t find the salamander in August but confirmed that the rocky river bottom is suitable habitat for the creature, nicknamed the “Snot Otter” because of its slimy skin. They did find a mud puppy and a surprise second species of freshwater mussel that hasn’t been seen in the once highly-polluted river in more than a century.

Chapman’s team surveyed three days in the Youghiogheny, partnering with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. They surveyed in the middle and lower Yough. Although they came up empty in August, DCNR continued to survey and found a hellbender within a couple of weeks, according to Chapman.

In 2020, Chapman and crew will go back to the Kiski and Youghiogheny again in search of the hellbender.

The region’s most robust populations of hellbenders are found in the Allegheny River north of Oil City, Chapman said.

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