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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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Missouri DPS of eastern hellbender.
Sedimentation is the addition of fine soil particles e.g., sands, silts, clays to streams. These sediments bury shelter and nest rocks Blais 1996, p. 11; Lipps 2009, p. 10; Hopkins and DuRant 2011, p. 112, suffocate eggs Nickerson and Mays 1973, pp. 5556, alter habitat for crayfish the primary food source of adult eastern hellbenders Santucci et al. 2005, pp. 986987; Kaunert 2011, p.
23, and degrade habitat for larval and juvenile hellbenders, as well as habitat for macroinvertebrates, which are an important food source for larval hellbenders Cobb and Flannagan 1990, pp. 3537; Nickerson et al. 2003, p.
624. Because sedimentation affects all life stages of the eastern hellbender, impairs or prevents successful reproduction, and is pervasive throughout the subspecies range, it has specifically been implicated as a cause of eastern hellbender declines and as a continuing threat throughout much of the Missouri DPS range.
Water Quality Degradation Degraded water quality was estimated as having the second highest impact on the Missouri DPSs status because it can cause direct mortality of eastern hellbenders and, at sublethal levels, can alter physiological processes and increase vulnerability to other threats Maitland 1995, p. 260. Major sources of aquatic pollutants include domestic wastes, agricultural runoff, coal mining activities, road construction, and unpermitted industrial discharges.
There are a few documented cases of eastern hellbender kills Williams, Chapman, and Floyd 2017, pers. comm.;
Feller and Thompson 2011, entire and many examples of fish and mussel kills from chemical pollution within the eastern hellbender range USFWS 2013, pp. 5927959284; Henley et al. 2002, entire. However, there is no information available to estimate how frequently chemical pollution events occur or the likelihood of this causing catastrophic decline in the Missouri DPS. Several databases track reported chemical spill events, 303d listed streams, and chemical pollution;
however, the effects of chemicals on eastern hellbender remain largely unknown Burgmeier et al. 2011b, p.
836; Pugh et al. 2015, pp. 1056. While it is unlikely that a single chemical spill could cause catastrophic loss of the entire DPS, such loss is possible if multiple spills occur in the Missouri DPS of eastern hellbender. For further discussion about water quality degradation see Risk and Conservation Factors of the SSA report Service 2018, pp. 3456.

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Disease Disease specifically, Bd was estimated to be strongly contributing to the current condition of the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender and was ranked fourth in threats currently affecting eastern hellbenders by species experts Service 2018, p. 36. Diseases can act as stressors and have the potential to cause catastrophic loss of hellbender populations. Emerging infectious diseases EID, especially fungal EIDs in wildlife discussed below, are on the rise Fisher et al.
2012, p. 188. Salamanders are especially susceptible given the high magnitude of legal and illegal trade in herpetofauna. The importation of wildlife is a known pathway for transmission of pathogens.
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Bd is a fungal pathogen responsible for causing chytridiomycosis, a highly infectious amphibian disease associated with mass die-offs, population declines and extirpations, and potentially species extinctions on multiple continents Berger et al. 1998, pp. 90319036;
Bosch et al. 2001, pp. 331337; Lips et al. 2006, pp. 31653166. The range of occurrence within eastern hellbenders in the Missouri DPS ranges among the rivers from 38 percent Briggler 2019, pers. comm, and Bodinof et al. 2011, p. 3 found the earliest detection in Missouri occurred in 1975. Although the exact impact of Bd remains unclear, species experts believe that even mild chronic Bd infections may negatively impact eastern hellbenders and may increase susceptibility of eastern hellbenders to other infections. While Bd currently does not appear to be causing large-scale mortality events in populations of eastern hellbenders in the Missouri DPS, other stressors, such as environmental contaminants or rising water temperatures, can weaken animals immune systems, leading to outbreaks of clinical disease, and cause mortality events in the future Briggler et al. 2007, p. 18; Regester et al. 2012, p. 19.
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans Bsal is a fungal pathogen that invaded Europe from Asia around 2010 and has caused mass die-offs of fire salamanders Salamandra salamandra in northern Europe Martel et al. 2014, p. 631;
Fisher 2017, pp. 300301. Given extensive unregulated trade and the discovery of Bsal in Europe in 2010, the introduction of this novel pathogen could cause extirpations of nave salamander populations in North America Yap et al. 2017, entire were Bsal to be introduced here. Given the high risk of Bsal invasion, on January
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13, 2016, the Service published in the Federal Register 81 FR 1534 an interim rule to list 20 amphibian genera known to carry Bsal as injurious under the Lacey Act to limit importation into the United States. Despite this protection, it is possible that an unknown carrier or illegal import could introduce this pathogen into eastern hellbender populations. The Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender has a low to moderate risk of Bsal introduction based on proximity to areas with a high volume of amphibian trade Richgels et al. 2016, p. 5; unregulated trade of amphibians occurs in the range of the DPS and releases of infected amphibians could lead to the introduction of Bsal to this area.
Habitat Disturbance Anthropogenic disturbance in the form of rock-moving by people recreating on rivers is a stressor on eastern hellbenders and can cause mortality. Large shelter rocks are removed to reduce obstructions to recreational canoeing or tubing.
Additionally, collection of boulders, rocks, and cobble for landscaping has been suspected in some areas in Missouri Briggler et al. 2007, p. 62.
Because large rocks serve as shelter and nesting habitat for adults, and smaller rocks and cobble provide larval and juvenile habitat, moving rocks of any size has the potential to lead to mortality of some life stage. For example, Unger et al. 2017, entire documented a deceased adult eastern hellbender under a recently constructed rock stack and a deceased larval eastern hellbender under freshly moved cobble at the base of a small, artificial dam.
Both structures were presumed to have been constructed by recreational visitors to the small, heavily used stream Unger et al. 2017, entire.
Small Populations, Population Fragmentation, and Isolation Populations of the Missouri DPS of eastern hellbender are small and isolated from one another by impoundments and large reaches of unsuitable habitat. This isolation restricts movement among populations and precludes natural recolonization from other populations Dodd 1997, p. 178; Benstead et al. 1999, pp. 662
664; Poff and Hart 2002, p. 660.
Increased Abundance of Species of Predators Some native predators of the eastern hellbender, such as raccoons, have increased in abundance due to anthropogenic influences, while others have recently been reintroduced into
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