The new official amphibian of Pennsylvania is the slimy "Snot Otter"

The state of Pennsylvania now has official amphibian representation.

The House voted 191-6 Tuesday to grant the honor to the Eastern hellbender, which can grow to be more than 2 feet (a half meter) long and is battling declining numbers across much of its range in the United States.

High school student Emma Stone has been fighting for recognition of the Eastern hellbender since 2016. She is the president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Student Leadership Council.

She spoke with As It Happens host Carol Off from Carlyle, Pennsylvania. 

Emma, with the news that the State of Pennsylvania has chosen the Eastern hellbender salamander as its official amphibian, a.k.a. the 'Snot Otter,' you must be very pleased.

I certainly am. This has been so much hard work over the last three years. We started this project in 2016 and now it's the spring of 2019 and we finally did it. And it's so much more than just naming the hellbender the Pennsylvania state amphibian, there's so much more behind it than just the title, we're really proud.

Why was it important to you? What is it about this creature that you think is makes it so worthy?

Most importantly, the hellbender is an indicator species, which means that its presence in water indicates that the water is healthy so they can't survive in polluted water. They're very pollution intolerant. So we noticed that their populations were declining and that was most likely due to pollution and their water.

How did they get these weird names, like 'snot otter,' 'lasagna lizard,' 'devil dog'? What does it look like?

It can grow to be 29 inches long. It's the largest amphibian in North America. It's a brown color, they have flat heads. They live under large flat rocks. And then they actually have these folds on the sides of their bodies, sometimes referred to as "lasagna flaps."

Those additional folds provide them with more surface area on their skin. Hellbenders are pretty interesting because they breathe through their skin. They do have lungs for if they were to go on land, but they rarely go on land, so they breathe through their skin.

OK, so that's how it got the name Lasagna Lizard. How did it get called the snot otter?

They're very slimy, hence the snot in the portion of that name. They have racked up quite a few names. But the hellbender name is from people saying that it looks like it came from hell. 

And Devil Dog, another name. 

Yes, yes.

So in addition to being butt ugly, they are very picky about where they live. 

They will only survive in very fast moving cold waters. So if the water is kind of stagnant there's no way they could survive. And they cannot survive with any pollution. So not only does it need to be a fast and cold moving stream but it needs to be free of pollution. 

Wow. I'm with the Lasagna Lizard on this one, but that must mean they're very rare.

At this point, yes they are. Their populations have declined significantly even just in the last 15 years. But there are a lot of breeding centers throughout Pennsylvania and New York to rehabilitate the hellbender population.

I understand they're also quite elusive. So have you actually ever seen one.

I have — not in the wild, but at these rehabilitation repopulation facilities I have seen and felt them, and seeing them up close, I mean sure, they're ugly, but they have a charming story. Definitely something that I'm proud to name the State Amphibian.
 
And do they feel slimy? 

They do, yes. They're very very slippery. It's difficult to get a grip on them.

So that's a good thing though, they get so they wiggle out of people's hands if they try to take them in. But what does having this kind of recognition actually do for them?

Well like I said,  their populations are diminished. So our hope is that with all of [this] support and recognition, people are going to have an understanding of what they are.