endemic to a single nation

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (5000-200,000 square km (about 2000-80,000 square miles)) Southern Missouri and adjacent northern Arkansas; endemic to the Black and White River drainages, in portions of the Spring, White, Eleven Point, and Current rivers and their tributaries (LaClaire 1993).

Length: 51 cm

Paratype for Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Amphibians & Reptiles
Preparation: Ethanol
Year Collected: 1932
Locality: Montauk State Park, Dent, Missouri, United States, North America

Paratype for Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Amphibians & Reptiles
Preparation: Ethanol
Year Collected: 1900
Locality: No Further Locality Data, Oregon, Missouri, United States, North America

Paratype for Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Amphibians & Reptiles
Preparation: Ethanol
Year Collected: 1931
Locality: Big Spring State Park, Current River, Carter, Missouri, United States, North America

Comments: Rocky, clear creeks and rivers, usually where there are large shelter rocks. Usually avoids water warmer than 20 C. Males prepare nests beneath large flat rocks or submerged logs.

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Comments: Crayfish are the most important food item, though fishes (often scavenged) and other aquatic invertebrates are also eaten (Peterson et al. 1989).

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 1 - 5

Comments: Few occurrences remain (see trend comments).

1000 - 10,000 individuals

Comments: Total adult population size is unknown but likely is in the low thousands.

In Missouri, 80% of recaptures were within 30 m of tagging site. Density in Missouri was about 400-500 per km of suitable river habitat (Nickerson and Mays 1973, Peterson et al. 1983); 1-6 per 100 sq m in Ozark streams (Peterson et al. 1988). Larvae often are rare or at least difficult to find.

Comments: Primarily nocturnal but sometimes active in daylight. Evidently active throughout the year in streams heavily influenced by springs (Peterson et al. 1989).

Lays eggs in late summer or fall; winter breeding has been observed in the Spring River, Arkansas (Peterson et al. 1989). Clutch size averages about 350-500; increases with female body length. Several females may oviposit in same site. Males guard developing eggs. Larvae hatch in 1.5-3 months, lose gills about 18 months after hatching. Sexually mature in 5th or 6th year. Longevity 25+ years.

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N2 - Imperiled

Rounded Global Status Rank: T2 - Imperiled

Reasons: Occurs in rivers in southern Missouri and adjacent northern Arkansas; has declined in recent decades, probably due primarily to human-caused habitat alteration; few large and stable populations. See also the information for the species, C. alleganiensis.

Intrinsic Vulnerability: Highly vulnerable

Comments: Slow to mature (takes several years), low recruitment rate, low vagility.

Environmental Specificity: Very narrow. Specialist or community with key requirements scarce.

Current Listing Status Summary

Status: Endangered
Date Listed: 11/07/2011
Lead Region:   Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region (Region 3) 
Where Listed:


For most current information and documents related to the conservation status and management of Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, see its USFWS Species Profile

Global Short Term Trend: Relatively stable to decline of 30%

Comments: This salamander appears to be declining in most areas; perhaps only one or two populations are robust and stable.

Status in the main stem of the White River is uncertain but likely this area does not support a viable population; none were detected in a 2001 survey below Bull Shoals and Norfork dams (Wheeler and Trauth 2002).

A gradual, long-term decline appears to be occurring in the North Fork White River, where populations appeared to be stable in the early 1990s (Wheeler 1999, Wheeler et al. 1999, Wheeler et al. 2003). There is at least one healthy population in the North Fork (at Dawt Mill, Missouri; Wheeler and Trauth 2002). An apparently small population exists, or recently existed, in Bryant Creek, a tributary of the North Fork White River in Ozark County Missouri (Wheeler et al. 1999, Wheeler and Trauth 2002).

A formerly abundant population in the Spring River, Arkansas, apparently declined in the 1990s (B. K. Wagner, H. Kucuktas, and R. Shopen, unpublished abstract; Trauth et al. 2004).

Wheeler et al. (2003) recorded declines in abundance in the Eleven Point River between the early 1980s and late 1990s, although Trauth et al. (2004) stated that hellbender status in this river and elsewhere in Arkansas is little known due to inadequate study.

A small but persisting population exists in the Current River in Missouri, but lack of recruitment is evident (Wheeler and Trauth 2002). A small population existed in Jacks Fork (a Current River tributary) in the early 1990s but recent data are lacking.

Limited surveys yielded no hellbender records in the Black River (Wheeler et al. 1999).

Global Long Term Trend: Decline of 30-50%

Comments: This salamander appears to have declined in most areas.

Degree of Threat: B : Moderately threatened throughout its range, communities provide natural resources that when exploited alter the composition and structure of the community over the long-term, but are apparently recoverable

Comments: The cause of the decline that has occurred in recent decades is uncertain (Trauth et al. 2004). A spill of diesel fuel and a recent 100-year flood event may have contributed to the decline in the Spring River (Trauth et al. 2004).

The principal exisitng threat is degradation of habitat, including impoundments, ore and gravel mining, silt and nutrient runoff (e.g., from timber harvest, agriculture, faulty septic and sewage treatment systems), and den site disturbance due to recreational uses of rivers (Nickerson and Mays 1973, Mount 1975:109, Williams et al. 1981, LaClaire 1993, Phillips et al. 1999, Wheeler et al. 1999). The species depends on cool, flowing, well-oxygenated water, and it needs a coarse (rocky) substrate. It appears to be intolerant of heavy recreational use of its habitat. The threat factor ranked here is habitat loss/degradation.

Overexploitation (collection and illegal or unintentional harvest) may be a threat to declining populations, whose viability may be reduced by removal of relatively few adults.

Some recent studies found open sores, tumors, and missing limbs and eyes in hellbenders in the Spring and Eleven Point rivers (see Wheeler et al. 2002, Trauth et al. 2004). The cause of the abnormalities is unknown.

Many populations have become reduced to the point at which the usual problems associated with small population size come into effect. Fragmentation of populations as a result of habitat loss/degradation is making it increasingly unlikely that extirpated populations can be reestablished through natural dispersal.

Comments: Genetic data do not support recognition of C. alleganiensis subspecies as traditionally circumscribed (see taxonomy comment for C. alleganiensis).