 As the female lays eggs, the male positions himself alongside or slightly above them, spraying the eggs with sperm while swaying his tail and moving his hind limbs, which disperses the sperm uniformly.The male often tempts other females to lay eggs in his nest, and as many as 1,946 eggs have been counted in a single nest.Cannibalism, however, leads to a much lower number of eggs in hellbender nests than would be predicted by egg counts.