Diet includes crayfish, earthworms, and various insects. They are nocturnal. Hellbenders are highly vulnerable to pollution and siltation of their rivers and streams. From highway construction to urban runoff, channelization and damming of rivers for reservoirs, man has effected hellbender populations through-out its range. The Hellbenders role in river and stream ecology is important to the very people who endanger it.
Hellbenders keep crayfish populations in check, allowing more and bigger game fish to develop.
They also prey on weak and diseased fish, thus controlling disease spread and allowing the strong and healthy to grow. Where they thrive, so do everything that needs clean, oxygen-rich water. These eel-like salamanders have two tiny pairs of legs with two toes on each foot. The body is dark brown to black above and dark gray below. The trunk is nearly cylindrical.