Ground puppy. Snot otter. Lasagna lizard.
While nicknames given to the Eastern hellbender abound, wild sightings of the ancient amphibian do not.
In fact, the giant aquatic salamander is designed to stay out of sight.
Native to the cool, fast-flowing streams of the Appalachian Mountains, “hellbenders are very cryptic animals and can spend their entire lives sitting under one rock,” says Will Ternes, an animal keeper at the Chattanooga Zoo.
Their skin is covered in cells specialized to detect light, known as photoreceptors, which alert the salamander if any part of it is exposed, Ternes explains.