Environmentalists on Tuesday sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in a bid to secure belated Endangered Species Act protections for all of the oversize and vividly nicknamed salamanders formally called eastern hellbenders.
Informally dubbed devil dogs, ground puppies and Allegheny alligators, the eastern hellbender is North America’s largest amphibian and can grow as along as 29 inches. It has also been the subject of prior litigation, which ultimately led FWS in December 2024 to propose listing the species across its entire 15-state range as endangered under the ESA.
The proposal triggered a December of 2025 deadline for a final yea-or-nay listing decision, but according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Tucson, Arizona, FWS let the deadline pass without making a decision.
“Trump’s administration has gone beyond foot-dragging to full-on contempt for life by sidelining protections for endangered wildlife like hellbenders,” Tierra Curry, endangered species co-director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a startement.
