House hunting for hellbenders: Pick right-sized rock or be eaten by cannibal neighbors
(WorldNews Environment)

For young hellbenders, choosing the right home is more than a major life decision. Their survival can depend on it. These aquatic salamanders, natives of streams in the Ozarks and Appalachia, spend most of their life in the shadowy crevice between the underside of a rock and a river bed, picking off crayfish and, occasionally, each other. In the first study of young hellbenders` habitats, University of Florida ecology doctoral candidate Kirsten Hecht found that larvae tend to live under small rocks, progressively moving to larger rocks as they grow. Selecting a `just right` rock - too tiny for one`s bigger neighbors - could help young hellbenders avoid getting ambushed and eaten, Hecht said....