(water rushing) (epic music) (underwater gurgling) - Yes!
- Wow! (jungle music) West Virginia has an
endless expanse of nature and is famously known
for being a wild and wonderful place to explore. Its vast, rolling mountains
span across the entire length of the state and
hiding deep within them is a plethora of wildlife. Today we are exploring an
incredibly healthy ecosystem near Elkins. In a secret location that
we are not allowed to reveal as it is heavily protected
for conservation purposes. We have special permissions
to explore this location and are working alongside
field herpetologist, Tim Brust. Tim specializes in surveying
protected wilderness areas where he safely
catches, records, and releases reptiles
and amphibians. What you got there, Tim? - What we have here is
a Northern Water Snake. - Our mission is going
to be anything but easy as the goal is to locate
one of the rarest amphibians in the great state
of West Virginia; a Giant Salamander that is
known as the Hellbender. Wow. There's the river. (grand music) And in there is where we'll
be searching for Hellbenders. It's absolutely beautiful. And right now we're
scouting around for a place to build a base camp and,
basically, all of this river that you see in the
background here is fair game for Hellbenders, so in these
ripples are great spots, there're a lot of
huge, flat rocks. So I'll be in the water
with a dive mask on, feeling around for
Giant Salamanders. This is gonna be awesome. There's no good word to
describe what it takes to find and catch a Hellbender
other than difficult. The fast-flowing water
is incredibly cold. So much so that we're
forced to wear dive suits. Dive masks will allow
us to see underwater as we literally have
to scan the river basin and look into the
dark crevices of rocks with a slim hope of seeing
a pair of big, buggy eyes looking right back at us. I am about to stick my
face into the water, hold on, I gotta get a little. Yeah, that's real cold. That is real cold, okay. Here we go, alright
guys, wish me luck. Searching for a Hellbender is
an incredibly delicate process and our intention was to
disturb the environment as little as possible. This means gently feeling
up and under rocks as opposed to flipping them. The last thing we
wanted to do was alter a potential Hellbender home
as they're very territorial and will often stay in one area for a considerable
amount of time. This is unbelievably freezing,
to have your complete body submerged in this frigid water. I can't even feel my
fingers right now. Wow, okay, I don't know
how Tim's doing this. - Nothing yet. But it is freezing. - [Coyote] Our epic Hellbender
hunt went on for hours. At this point, I was
completely frozen and ready to call it a day. Yet Tim absolutely
refused to give up and his persistence
finally paid off. Got one? - [Cameraman] We got one? - Hellbender looked
me right in the face. - [Cameraman] We
got a Hellbender. (magical music) - Okay, so we have
a Hellbender, 100%, right here underneath this rock. Tim's gonna use a gentle
maneuver to coax it out and I'm gonna try to
scoop it up in the net. - [Cameraman] Is it big? - It appears to be, is it big? - [Cameraman] Tim says it's big. - It's a big one. Alright, the Hellbender
is right near the entrance of this hole. We have a really good chance
in actually catching it. (water bubbling) (intense music) - Right here.
- I see him. We got him! (crew cheers) Oh man, Tim!
- Yeah! - That was amazing. The coax and the net. In all fairness,
- Yeah! - Tim did net
- Yes. - the Hellbender.
- Yes. - It went right
underneath his legs. There it is, it is
an absolute giant. - Yes!
- Wow! - That was the hardest
Hellbender I've ever had. - Wow.
- Oh man. - That was an amazing maneuver. He just grabbed the
net from my hand, it shot out, in between
his legs, and he netted it. Wow, that was incredible. Look at the size of
that Giant Salamander. - [Tim] That's a big one. - [Coyote] That's a big one? - [Tim] That's a good one, yeah. - [Coyote] Wow. - [Cameraman] Man, what a weird--
- Gorgeous. - [Cameraman] What
a weird creature. - Most bizarre salamander
I have ever seen. Okay, we need to find ourselves
a good, controlled spot in decent light and
get the salamander up close for the cameras. - Alright.
- You ready? - Yeah, man.
- There it is. Yes, we got one. Alright, guys, well it
was a long, cold day in the river but
we finally did it. Alright, Tim, bring
in the Hellbender. Oh. There is it, one of the
most elusive creatures you can possibly come
across in the United States. - [Cameraman] What? - And the largest
salamander species that we have here
in North America. Look at that, that
is a Hellbender. Very, very slippery, very
difficult to hold onto. You notice how
flattened the shape of this amphibian's body is. That's what allows them
to easily slide underneath the crevices in between rocks
and then work their bodies against the current
as they're walking on the basin of a
river, looking for food. Look at the head,
completely flat. Have you ever seen
anything like that before? Some people call it the
Allegheny Alligator, some people call it the
Mud Dog, the Mud Devil. My personal favorite,
though, is Snot Otter. And it feels as if it
is covered in snot. And you can see this
brownish colored body, very long and slender,
makes it look like an otter. - Wow.
- But in fact, we do know this is an
amphibian and not a mammal. - [Cameraman] It
does feel snotty. - [Coyote] Right? That's why you can see it's so
hard for me to hold onto it. One thing that I can feel
that you guys can't quite see is that, on the tips of
their toes, they have these little grippy pads. Tim, see if you can kinda
fold up a foot there. And show that to the camera. See the little kind of
orange fingertips there? - [Cameraman] Now are those
slimy or are those grippy? - Those are very grippy. That helps these amphibians
grab onto the slimy rocks on the basin of the river. Look at that coloration,
though, right. Let me kinda tilt it
down, can you see that? Brown with slightly
orange patterning allows it to stay
perfectly camouflaged on the basin of the river. And you can see
the up front there. Kinda zoom in on those
eyes, see how tiny they are? They have very poor eyesight. They can sense light
but they actually have all these little
light receptors all over their bodies and
they can also sense vibrations in the water. They use that ability
to sense vibrations to help them hunt
for their food. And then look at the tail. The tail is like a rudder. Can you see that? And that's how they're
capable of making quick bursts of movement underwater,
if they need to, like when it first came out
from underneath the rock, it shot out and Tim
magically somehow managed to scoop it up in the net. Now they're primarily nocturnal,
that's when they come out and do their hunting and
90% of this amphibian's diet is made up of crayfish. They will eat small
fish, they will take other little invertebrates
and, believe it or not, a large on like this will
even eat other Hellbenders. They're very, very
territorial and oftentimes a smaller Hellbender
may lose its life to a larger one like
this if it wanders in to the wrong neighborhood. I'm just in such awe of
this creature right now, it is unbelievably incredible. Like, I never thought
I would ever see a salamander this big. Now, it is the largest
species of salamander in North America and the
third largest species of salamander in the world. Third only to the Giant Chinese
and Japanese Salamander. And look at that little face. How adorable is this creature? It's kinda staying pretty
calm at the moment, I'm gonna dip him back
down into the water. I need to make sure
that this amphibian stays hydrated at all times. Here, Mark, come over top. Now, let me show you
these lateral skin flaps. This is one of the
most interesting things about these amphibians. Can you see this? - Sure can.
- See those flaps? These flaps actually
help them oxygenate. And they absorb all their
oxygen through the water. Well hello. Hi there. What's your name? Shall we name you? Herbie? Herbie the Hellbender? (water bubbles)
(salamander squeaks) - [Cameraman] I
think that's a yes. - Yeah, he gave me a little
squeak and blew some bubbles. Well, it's interesting
because they breathe through their skin and scientists
actually aren't sure if they use their
lungs to breathe or just for buoyancy underwater. And right there, I would
definitely say that it kinda looked like
it came up for air. At least, it exerted
some air from its lungs, probably so that it could
get down to the bottom of this tub of water. Now, one thing that I do want
to do, very quickly here, is actually get the
length of this Hellbender. We're gonna do a little
biometric research here. Trying to get it completely
stretched out here. Tip of the snout
to tip of the tail. - [Cameraman] I think
with the bend it's 20. - [Coyote] That looks like a
20 inch Hellbender right there. Wow, 20 inches in length. - [Cameraman] So, Coyote,
how old is this amphibian? - [Coyote] Well, nobody
really knows for sure how long they can live
but some scientists think they can live as long as 70 years.
- Wow. - I would guess that this
one, based on its size, is probably somewhere between
25 and 30 years of age. - [Cameraman] So about
as old as we are? - Yeah, pretty much,
this is an old creature and they're very
susceptible to pollution. This is what we call
an indicator species and the fact that we've
found one here in this river is a really good sign
that the water system is in fact healthy. Now their larvae are the ones
that are most susceptible to pollution but, because
they absorb so much of the environment through
their skin like all amphibians, if it's a polluted area,
it's not a good chance that they're gonna survive. Well it was one very
long and very frigid day, searching the rivers
of West Virginia, but we finally came across
the elusive Hellbender. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild, we'll see you on
the next adventure. Alright, let's get this
salamander back into the water. Over the past century,
Hellbender populations have greatly declined. And while the species
is not officially listed as being endangered,
or even threatened, it is protected across its range and strong conservation
efforts are helping to preserve the species. Organizations like West
Liberty University, which has the largest
Hellbender conservation facility in West Virginia, are currently
head starting Hellbenders for release into the
wild, helping to ensure a hopeful future for
these giant amphibians. Alright, there he goes,
back up underneath his rock. Yes, alright, well, Herbie
is back in the wild. High fives, Tim, amazing job, that was one wild adventure. Alright, guys, let's
get out of this river and warm up. I know that I will never
forget my time spent in that freezing cold
river, working alongside Tim and the moment he
successfully netted that incredible creature. We got him! And as it disappeared back
into its dark watery lair, I felt a sense of
overwhelming gratitude for being given the
chance to get up close with the one and
only Hellbender. If you thought the Hellbender
was bizarre-looking, make sure to go back and
check out the episode where I was inked by the
Brown Sea Hare, gross. And don't forget, subscribe so you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail. Wow, I never knew that
slugs had eyes before. (bear growls)
(eagle cries)
This guys channel provides some of the best nature and wildlife videos out there, I don't know why reddit doesn't like him.
The creek down the road from my house growing up was one of the best places in the country to find eastern Hellbenders. Used to see them every so often when we were scuba diving. Interesting little things, and he's right about them being territorial, more often than not they'd have bite marks from other hellbenders all over them