Found lurking in Ohio’s rivers and streams, this salamander can grow to nearly two feet long. But despite its name and size, this endangered species is harmless.

Yes, hellbenders are real. And now the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has immortalized them on a T-shirt.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources uses hellbenders on 75th anniversary T-shirts in homage to Hell is Real sign

In an homage to the infamous Hell is Real sign on Interstate 71 between Cincinnati and Columbus, ODNR is using the slogan “Hellbenders are Real” (complete with an H that’s a different color from the rest of the letters, just like the sign) on one of its five 75th anniversary T-shirts. Other T-shirts read “Take a Hike,” “Let it Grow,” “Wild for Wildflowers” and “Ohio’s for the Birds.”

Sadly, the hellbenders T-shirt is currently out of stock. ODNR spokesperson Karina Cheung says they’ve sold out twice so far, first at the Ohio State Fair in late July and early August, and then shortly after they went live for online sales last week. However, ODNR has put in another order.

All about the hellbender salamander, an endangered species

The largest amphibian in Ohio, the eastern hellbender can grow to a length of 27 inches, according to ODNR, but they are usually 11.5 to 20 inches in length. They have functional lungs, along with a single gill slit on each side of the neck.

Found mostly in southern and eastern Ohio, hellbenders prefer large, swift streams where they hide under rocks during the day. They feed on crayfish, snails, minnows, insects and worms. Because hellbenders need clean, oxygen-rich water, they can be a good indicator of water quality and overall health of the stream, according to the Ohio State University Extension.

They breed in late August or September, according to ODNR. The female lays up to 500 eggs in a nest under a large rock dug by the male. Sometimes, several females use the same nest. That nest is then guarded by the male until the young hellbenders hatch in two to three months. They keep their gills until they’re about a year and a half old.

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium helping to repopulate the hellbender

Sept. 20, 2023, was a red-letter day for Greg Lipps, amphibian and reptile conservation coordinator for The Ohio State University. That was the day he and his team discovered a hellbender raised at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and released in 2016, guarding a nest of eggs, Lipps wrote for the zoo.

“This was, of course, exactly what we had always hoped to see: an animal born and raised at a zoo, released back into the wild, going on to reproduce and help reverse the decline of this iconic species,” Lipps writes.

The hellbender in question, a male, was found two weeks earlier — on Sept. 6 — having taken up residence in a “hellbender hut,” an artificial concrete habitat in streams used by hellbenders to nest. The male was collected as an egg in 2013, raised at the zoo and released into the wild as a 3-year-old, Lipps wrote.

More on the hellbender: Zoos, other officials work to keep hellbender salamander happy and healthy in Ohio

“This is the first evidence of a released hellbender reproducing in the wild,” John Navarro, program administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Aquatic Stewardship program, told Farm and Dairy.

Hellbender eggs, collected each year, are sent to the Columbus and Toledo zoos as well as the animal husbandry program at the Penta Career Center in Perrysburg, Ohio, where they are raised until age three, Farm and Dairy reports.

More than 1,900 hellbenders raised at these facilities have been released into Ohio waterways in the past 10 years, Navarro said.

CANTON, Ohio – Heartwarming video shows an Ohio state trooper stopping to safely remove an injured kitten that was found lying on a busy highway Wednesday. 

The Ohio State Highway Patrol released footage that showed the officer leaving his vehicle on Interstate 77 in Canton to approach the black and white kitten.

The trooper then scoops up the kitten, using a jacket, and places the cat in the back of his vehicle. 

The kitten was brought to the Stark County Humane Society where it’s waiting for a forever home, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. 

A judge ruled Saturday that the Ohio law, which was set to take effect Sunday, violated the First Amendment rights of non-U.S. citizens living here legally

A federal judge blocked Ohio’s ban on foreign nationals and green card holders contributing to ballot campaigns.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson ruled Saturday that the Ohio law, which was set to take effect Sunday, violated the First Amendment rights of non-U.S. citizens living here legally, often known as green card holders.

Watson concluded that Ohio lawmakers have a legitimate interest in protecting ballot issues from foreign influence, but this law missed the mark.

For example, the law doesn’t limit foreign companies from contributing to ballot measures. Instead, it likely violates the rights of lawful permanent residents, who live in the United States indefinitely and can serve in the military.

“If the U.S. Federal Government trusts LPRs [lawful permanent residents] to put U.S. interests first in the military (of all places), how could this Court hold that it does not trust them to promote U.S. interests in their political spending? It cannot,” wrote Watson, who was appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush.

Ohio lawmakers added a ban on foreign contributions to ballot campaigns to a bill changing the deadline for presidential nominees to make the Ohio ballot. Democrats scheduled their national convention this year after Ohio’s initial deadline, necessitating the change.

There already was a ban in Ohio on candidate donations.

The penalty for these contributions is a fine of at least $10,000 or three times the amount contributed and a first-degree misdemeanor for the first offense or a fifth-degree felony for repeat offenses. The Ohio attorney general is tasked with investigating and prosecuting these crimes.

When the bill was moving through the Legislature, Republican lawmakers like Rep. Bill Seitz, of Green Township, and Sen. Niraj Antani, of Miamisburg, warned that a judge could decide that they had overstepped.

“Green card holders absolutely have the right to freedom of speech,” Antani said before the vote. “And absolutely, donating to campaigns and candidates is free speech. This is going to get mucked up in the courts.”

Antani’s words proved prescient on Saturday.

Watson wrote: “Not only does the First Amendment protect lawful resident foreign nationals as speakers, but it also protects U.S. citizens’ right to hear those foreign nationals’ political speech.”

The lawsuit challenging Ohio’s ban on foreign spending was filed by OPAWL – Building AAPI Feminist Leadership, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, a German citizen and her husband who live in northeast Ohio and a Canadian citizen who lives in Silver Lake by the Elias Law Group and Cooper Elliott.

Read the decision:

Jessie Balmert covers state government and politics for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.