10/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/08/2024 05:10
By THOMAS FLOYD
Hellbender surveys this summer turned up a welcomed surprise: one of the state's few sightings of common mudpuppies.
Although the big freshwater salamanders also known as waterdogs range from New York to the Great Lakes and from southern Canada to the rivers of northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, common mudpuppies are abundant in only parts of that realm. And in Georgia, they are rare.
The mid-August capture and release of three mudpuppies near Blairsville marked only the third time that Necturus maculosus has been documented in the state. (The previous sightings were near Ringgold in 1987 and McCaysville in 2010.)
Tips on telling mudpuppies (right) and hellbenders apart (photo/Thomas Floyd/DNR)
While mudpuppies are found alongside eastern hellbenders throughout much of the hellbender's range, it's unclear why mudpuppies are so elusive or simply absent in many streams in western North Carolina and Georgia.
Since 2011, DNR surveys have recorded nearly 900 hellbenders across the Tennessee River drainage in north Georgia. But during that same time, and in what is the state's presumed distribution of mudpuppies, only three waterdogs have been seen.
Common mudpuppy (Alan Cressler)
MUDPUPPY LOVE
Thomas Floyd is a wildlife biologist with Georgia DNR's Wildlife Conservation Section. This article first appeared in the agency's Georgia Wild e-newsletter.