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This Is Not an Alien, It's a Mudpuppy, and It Lives Here, Eats Cat Food

By Justin Breen | January 30, 2015 5:56am | Updated on January 30, 2015 5:57am
 Mudpuppies live in various Chicago waters.
Mudpuppies in Chicago
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CHICAGO — Although they might look like alien life-forms, mudpuppies can be found right here in Chicago.

The brownish amphibians with external featherlike gills, which can grow more than a foot long and live 20-plus years, live underwater near the shorelines of various city waters, including Lake Michigan and Wolf Lake.

"They're kind of bizarre-looking in a beautiful way," said Alicia Beattie, a master’s student at Southern Illinois University who is teaming with the Shedd Aquarium's Department of Conservation and Research on a project studying mudpuppies.

"I just think they’re a really fascinating species," Beattie said. "I haven't really seen anything quite like them. It’s really cool they live right in the Chicago area. The vast majority of the public has probably never seen a mudpuppy."

The species is threatened in Illinois, and Beattie said it's difficult to determine how many live in and around Chicago. The project — which Beattie said hopes to determine where mudpuppies reside, what they eat, what type of habitat they like and their ages — began in June at Monroe Harbor in the aquarium's backyard. This month, Beattie and some volunteers dug through ice at Wolf Lake in Hegewisch and collected 10 mudpuppies.

Beattie said she traps the mudpuppies with "funnel-type minnow traps" containing a variety of bait, including shrimp, earthworms and even canned cat food.

Mudpuppies get their name from their vocalizations, which have been likened to a dog's bark. Threats to their numbers include declining water supply and fishermen who kill them because they think they're "poisonous or harmful," Beattie said.

"And they're not," Beattie said. "They're pretty misunderstood."

Fishermen are the most likely humans to see the underwater creatures, Beattie said. Beachgoers have no need to fear they might step on a mudpuppy, she added.

"They're so rarely seen, that's something that won't come into play," Beattie said.

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