Shared by our friends at City Cast Pittsburgh
In 2019, the hellbender was named Pennsylvania’s official state amphibian. It’s the largest salamander in North America, and can grow as long as 30 inches, though the average is about 12-15 inches.
Hellbenders can be found in rivers and streams all throughout the state. It has some interesting nicknames too, such as “mud devil, “ground puppy,” “devil dog,” “Allegheny alligator,” and “lasagna lizard.”
I’ve never seen one, and this is probably because they are generally nocturnal, spending most of their day under riverbed rocks, only emerging at night for hunting.Adults are also very territorial, and typically chase off anyone who tries to visit them during the daylight.
This amphibian clearly has a lot of strange nicknames, but what’s with its actual name? One theory states that the first European settlers to see the salamander thought it was a “creature from hell, where it’s bent on returning.” I mean, wow.
