First Friday: All About Hellbenders with Kelly Crandall

First Friday (Adult+)
All About Hellbenders with Kelly Crandall

Friday, February 6, 2026
11:00 a.m. – Noon

$8 Adults; $6 Nature Center members
$6 Children 9 – 15

Reservations appreciated, walk-ins welcome.

Join Kelly Crandall, a wildlife biologist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as she shines a light on one of the most cryptic and misunderstood species in New York State, the Eastern Hellbender.

Hellbenders go by many names, including Allegheny alligators, snot otters, and lasagna lizards. There are just as many questions about Hellbenders as there are names. What’s the difference between a mudpuppy and a hellbender? Are hellbenders venomous? These are some of the questions that Kelly will be answering as she talks about the life history of these salamanders, their population status in the region and across North America, and how we can all be better neighbors to our local streams.

About the speaker: Kelly Crandall is a Chautauqua County native. After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in Animal Science in 2018, Kelly worked as a wildlife technician on a variety of projects, including Ocelot conservation in Texas, Burmese Python management in the Florida Everglades, Wild Turkey research in Missouri, and Steelhead Creel surveys in Dunkirk for the DEC. Kelly received her Master’s Degree in Forestry from Southern Illinois University where she studied the effects of human development on the movement of mesopredators in the Florida Keys and related that to parasite transmission. Kelly now works for the NYSDEC as a Regional Wildlife Biologist where she focuses on freshwater mussels and rare & endangered species of the Allegheny Watershed.

Special Information: If you’d like to bring a packed lunch, you can visit attendees and the speaker after the program.