{"id":2751,"date":"2015-02-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.sdps-bbs.com\/?p=2751"},"modified":"2025-07-29T15:29:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:29:38","slug":"purdue-partners-with-indiana-zoos-for-hellbender-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/purdue-partners-with-indiana-zoos-for-hellbender-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Partners With Indiana Zoos For Hellbender Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ExternalClass6B515411FDCB4CA38CADD770F8981C52\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0pt;margin-left: 10pt;margin-top: 0pt\" src=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/HellbenderEasternWaterW250.jpg\" alt=\"Hellbender conservation.\" width=\"250\" height=\"222\" align=\"right\" \/>Purdue University is partnering with three Indiana zoos and the state in a conservation program that will involve raising year-old hellbender salamanders and then returning them a few years later to their southern Indiana habitat to be tracked.<\/p>\n<p>Rod Williams, associate professor of wildlife science and leader of the university&#8217;s hellbender effort, approached officials at <a title=\"Columbian Park Zoo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.columbianparkzoo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Columbian Park Zoo<\/a> in Lafayette, <a title=\"Fort Wayne Children's Zoo\" href=\"http:\/\/kidszoo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fort Wayne Children&#8217;s Zoo<\/a> and <a title=\"Mesker Park Zoo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.meskerparkzoo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mesker Park Zoo<\/a> in Evansville about joining the program, which also includes the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.<\/p>\n<p>North America&#8217;s largest salamander is in decline nationally and is most vulnerable to predators when young. &#8220;Mortality can be as high as 99 percent in the wild,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;By rearing them in captivity for three to four years, they will have a much better survival rate.&#8221; <a title=\"Purdue partners with Indiana zoos for hellbender conservation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/releases\/2015\/Q1\/purdue-partners-with-indiana-zoos-for-hellbender-conservation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full article from Purdue Agriculture News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Resources<\/strong><br \/>\n<a title=\"Help the Hellbender\" href=\"http:\/\/www3.ag.purdue.edu\/extension\/hellbender\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Help the Hellbender<\/a>, Purdue University<br \/>\n<a title=\"Aquaculture Research Lab\" href=\"https:\/\/ag.purdue.edu\/fnr\/pages\/labaquaresearch.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aquaculture Research Lab<\/a>, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources<br \/>\n<a title=\"The Nature of Teaching\" href=\"https:\/\/mdc.itap.purdue.edu\/item.asp?Item_Number=FNR-417-W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Nature of Teaching<\/a>, The Education Store, Purdue Extension (Search &#8220;Nature of Teaching&#8221; for a list of all available lessons)<\/p>\n<p>Rod Williams\u200b, Associate Professor of Wildlife Science<br \/>\nDepartment of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR), Purdue University<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Purdue University is partnering with three Indiana zoos and the state in a conservation program that will involve raising year-old hellbender salamanders and then returning them a few years later to their southern Indiana habitat to be tracked. Rod Williams, associate professor of wildlife science and leader of the university&#8217;s hellbender effort, approached officials at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,54],"tags":[62,72],"class_list":["post-2751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gotnatureforkids","category-wildlife","tag-got-nature-for-kids","tag-wildlife","audience-for-enthusiasts","audience-for-homeowners","audience-for-landowners","audience-for-professionals"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33660,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/33660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}