A hellbender awaits release into a Middle Tennessee stream. It will have a radio transmitter as part of a conservation project undertaken by the Nashville Zoo and other cooperating entities.  Nashville Zoo

The need for the Headstart Program

Eastern hellbenders were once widely distributed in the Eastern United States, but they are now considered threatened in most states and are a state-endangered species in Tennessee. Researchers have documented a rapid decline over the last 30 years, and Nashville Zoo recognized a need for a headstart program. Headstarting is a strategy that focuses on raising at-risk animals in human care to be then released back into their native habitat in an effort to sustain wild populations.

Our hellbender conservation team has made incredible strides in past and present breeding initiatives. Nashville Zoo spearheaded the first successful captive breeding and first controlled breeding of eastern hellbenders with biotechnology in 2012, and the first successful hatching as a result of fertilization with cryopreserved sperm in 2015.

We hope to continue boosting genetically distinct hellbender populations through our established headstart program. The long-term goal of Nashville Zoo’s hellbender headstart program is to establish an outdoor, artificial stream on Zoo property where the herpetology team can breed hellbenders so that they can supplement eggs collected from the wild.

You can help protect hellbender’s homes and food sources by not moving rocks in or out of rivers or waterways. 

An eastern hellbender is released into a Middle Tennessee stream as part of a Nashville Zoo conservation effort.  Nashville Zoo