My third field trip associated with the Missouri Master Naturalist state conference was to the St. Louis Zoo to tour the Center for Hellbender Conservation. Pictures were not allowed so I am sharing the link to the center. There were bins of bleach to step in at every entry…trying to keep pathogens (like Chytrid fungi) away from the hellbenders. There were a lot of animals – from small to large. The smaller ones were in aquariums…the larger ones were in artificial streams mostly hidden under large rocks. There were two species: eastern hellbenders (dark skin) and Ozark hellbenders (mottled skin). The hellbender keeper conducted the hour-long tour….talking about the environmental requirements (water temp in the low 60s, rocks or tubes to hide in as the animals begin to grow, filtration of water, different kinds of food, and egg collection (both in the center and in the wild….and releasing the animals into the wild to shore up populations in stream clean and cool enough to support them.

The pictures I did take were from elsewhere in the zoo when I arrived early (not wanting to chance being late…or getting caught in heavy rain (it did rain a little but my umbrella was adequate)). There were pictures on the way into the zoo from the parking lot.

There were pelicans, wood ducks, and trees to see along the walk looking out over the water.

The flamingos were very active…and two appeared to be sitting on a nest!

After the Hellbender tour, I headed back to the car and noticed some clumps of rattlesnake master. I hope eventually I have a clump in my garden since my current single plants seem to be challenged to keep their stalks upright!