With , miles of rivers and streams, and over 3, springs, Missouri is blessed with an abundance of water. Clean and healthy waterways are a critical need that people and wildlife share.
Efforts made by the U. Fish and Wildlife Service Service and partners to recover Missouri's endangered aquatic life has the added benefit of improving water quality. Some Ozark Highland streams are home to the federally endangered Ozark hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishop.
These large salamanders spend their lives in clear, cool spring-fed streams, under large rocks or in crevices. For reasons that remain unclear, hellbender populations precipitously declined in the s. In fall , with support from the Service and state fish and wildlife agencies, the St. Louis Zoo successfully fertilized a clutch of eggs—a significant milestone for a captive breeding program that was 10 years in the making. From these eggs, hellbenders hatched—a huge stride in recovery for the species.
In addition to successful captive breeding, scientists have become adept at locating eggs in the wild. The result of both efforts is over 2, Ozark hellbenders slated for release back into Ozark streams. Young hellbenders are held in captivity until they reach larger sizes so they stand a better chance for survival when they are released into the wild.
This is the captive breeding facility that produced many of the wolves that have successfully transitioned back to their homeland—wolves that hunt appropriate prey, avoid people, and raise their young in family packs the way that they were raised while still in their temporary home.
Once a week the enclosures are cleaned. Two women enter and work their way around the acreage in a circular pattern. The wolf pack of twenty watches warily and moves ahead of the women, staying as far way from them as the acreage will allow. These are the wolves reared in a captive breeding facility.
They do not trust or approach people. They take what help the people offer but prefer to be left alone to live the lives of wolves. Annually the wolves are captured for veterinary checks—they send up alarm howls when the veterinarian reaches the gate of the facility several miles away. They howl again as the staff enter the capture equipment shed. They avoid the capture team as it enters their large enclosure.
Their natural avoidance of people is used to move them into smaller sub enclosures. The target wolf cowers while approached by three women.
It is pinned down while the veterinarian gives it inoculations and takes a blood sample—then the wolf is released. The wolf waits for a moment, giving a sideways glance toward the staff members. Is this a trick or an opportunity? Away the wolf races into the hills of its temporary home.
Later it rolls to remove the unwanted human scent. The wolves of the captive breeding facility are wary of the humans who provide food and water but also bring the pain of inoculations, confinement, and separation from their wolf family. The wolves use their legs to run, to avoid, and to hide. They howl in reunion and rejoice when the people leave. The hillsides belong to the wolves again. This is a captive breeding facility.
A halfway home to freedom. Here is where lobos recovered in numbers sufficient to begin their return to wild lives in the homeland of their ancestors. This is a captive breeding facility rearing wolves that distrust and avoid people, that know how to hunt, that have lived in large multi-generational family packs.
This is a captive breeding facility whose wolves have successfully made the transition to free-roaming wild lives again and again, hunting appropriate prey, avoiding their nemesis—people, and surviving to rear their young who strive to repopulate the Southwest. This is the Endangered Wolf Center.
The first litter conceived and born in captivity was fathered by Don Diego. A total of 1, newly hatched baby hellbenders are now being cared for by experienced and dedicated herpetology keepers in a private area at the Herpetarium. The process of the program is rather cyclical, Augustine described. Eggs are either collected from the zoo or from river systems. Then, the eggs are placed on special trays until they hatch.
Once hatched, the hellbenders are moved into nurseries where they are closely monitored and fed until it is time to potentially release them back into river systems. Adult hellbenders are fed crayfish, live fish and more; whereas the babies get a variety, including ghost shrimp, black worms and earthworms. Fish and Wildlife will work to release some of the brood into nature. Each will be tagged, and the survival rate is between 49 and 70 percent.
More than Ozark and eastern hellbenders raised from eggs at the zoo were released into their native Missouri rivers in summer by MDC, according to the zoo.
Since , 9, Saint Louis Zoo-raised endangered hellbenders have been reintroduced to the wild in Missouri. The amphibians and their health are a great indicator to just how well a water system is faring.
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