Lycoming College student Ruric Bowman, does research to advance senate bill for first ever Pennsylvania state amphibian

2017 Dec 12

Lycoming College student Ruric Bowman, from Benton Pa., was eager to seize the rare opportunity to work with the animals. "Working with Dr. Petokas on the Hellbender project was one of the greatest experiences of my life," said Ruric Bowman '20. "I was given the opportunity to work with and study these elusive and rare amphibians. There are only so few people who can say that they had the opportunity to study these amazing creatures, and I'm glad to be able to say that I'm one of them." Peter Petokas, Ph.D., research associate at Lycoming College and faculty member of the CWI, has been working with and researching the hellbender for 12 years. His work with college students began in 2006 with several projects focused on studying the ecology and health of the eastern hellbender in tributaries of the Susquehanna River. Petokas noted that at first, their projects revolved around population ecology - looking at where hellbender populations were occurring locally and how they were doing. Over the years however, their efforts moved toward conserving and restoring the declining population of hellbenders by creating habitats and collecting hellbender eggs to hatch, raise and release back into the wild with the help of several outside conservation groups.