It's a good time for snot otters. Since conservation efforts began in 2008 to reintroduce Ozark and eastern hellbenders, 10,000 have now been released to the wild as of this month, conservation officials say.
Thousands of the endangered Ozark and eastern hellbenders have been raised at the Saint Louis Zoo and released into Missouri rivers. Three entities have been working together toward this historic milestone and they include: the Saint Louis Zoo, Missouri Department of Conservation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"To save this species for the future to observe, we had to invest in propagation techniques," said MDC's State Herpetologist Jeff Briggler in a video with the department.