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After years of urging from conservationists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to add the eastern hellbender to the national endangered species list. This would protect the salamander throughout its range across 15 states from New York to Illinois to Mississippi.
Eastern hellbenders are a slimy, and very loveable brownish-orange salamander that thrive in the pristine, high mountain streams of Western North Carolina. However, their habitat has become increasingly threatened…