Officials with Great Smoky Mountains National Park are urging people to refrain from stacking rocks during their visit.
The National Park Service (NPS) says rock stacking may seem harmless, but it’s not.
The agency says that an eastern hellbender was recently found crushed beneath rocks that had been moved and stacked by park visitors.
Hellbenders are the largest salamander in North America, and are considered a species of special concern in North Carolina.
From late summer to early fall, hellbenders lay between 100 to 300 eggs beneath rocks. The park service says moving stones can destroy an entire generation of the amphibians.
Rock balancing or stacking has become popular in recent years, often for meditation or creative expression.
But NPS urges people to leave rocks where they are. Building dams, channels or stacks can disturb fragile ecosystems, including animal nests and shelters.