Missouri hellbenders bounce back from the brink of extinction

When the hellbender conservation effort began in the early 2000s, there were less than 500 of the animals left in the wild. Survival projections for the species looked grim when MDC, the St. Louis Zoo, and other collaborators set out to do something that had never been done in the world before: breed the hellbender in captivity.

Setting foot in the Ozarks

By Jack Suntrup VAN BUREN, Mo.—The hills surrounding town have begun a quiet thaw. It won’t be long before caravans of families and partiers will roll through for weekends on the rivers. Horses and revelers will slosh through the water; motorboats will speed through it; government will try to manage it. There’s no stretch of the…