The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is the largest amphibian in the world, but has now been found to be at least 5 and as much as 8 different species!

The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is very interesting salamander that is not only the largest salamander in the world, it is also the largest amphibian. Like you would expect from its name, it is endemic to China, where it is found in rocky mountain streams far away from most people.

A Chinese giant salamander. Image by http://opencage.info, posted with the CC BY-SA 2.5.

The giant salamander has also been introduced to other parts of the world, and it can be found in the Kyoto Prefecture in Japan, and some rumors also claim that it has been introduced to Taiwan as well. Despite this it is considered Critically Endangered by the IUCN, which is the closest category to extinction, so it’s in a really bad place when it comes to prolonged survival.

As you have read in the title, the species is now believed to be divided into between 5 and 8 different species, but before we get there, let us get to know the biology and ecology of the species.

The biology and ecology of the Chinese giant salamander

A full-grown adult can reach over 1.8 meters in length (5.9 feet) and weigh as much as 50kg (110 lb). Most adults never reach this size though, and it is far more common for them to be around 110-115cm long, and weigh 20-25kg.

Although it is huge, seeing it when it lies next to rocks is difficult, and it has a skin color that naturally matches the rocks in its natural habitat. This helps it avoid predators, but it also has a second line of defense: it produces a sticky, white skin secretion that will repel predators.

The Chinese giant salamander is known to be making pretty strange noises, and the Chinese name for it can actually be translated into “baby fish” because its noises resembles a human child that is crying.

The preferred habitat for the Chinese giant salamander is rocky hill streams or clear-water lakes, where it is then found in either muddy or rocky crevices along the banks. They also seem to thrive in subterranean rivers (underground rivers), where the population is mostly more healthy then above the ground, due to it being much more remote.

A subterranean river. Note: Not in China! Image is Public Domain.

The salamanders eat any animal they can fit in their mouth, including lots of different insects, worms, fish, shrimp, other amphibians, and even shrews. They also seem to be very fond of eating the meat of other Chinese giant salamanders, and a study that looked at their stomach content found that other Chinese giant salamanders made up 28 % of all the food items in their stomachs.

The decline of the giant salamander

Right now the Chinese giant salamander is considered to be Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List. This is very grim news, and the next stop on the category ranks are “Extinction in the Wild”. So, what is the reason? Once again the answer is Chinese traditional medicine..

What happened to the species is pretty much that humans began to pay a hefty sum of money for the meat from the salamander, and thus poachers began to trek into the mountainous areas of China to look for rivers where they would be. They are apparently very easy to hunt once you get to a river where they live, which is why humans were able to reduce their population by over 80 % in only three generations.

The Chinese government actually did their part and tried to save it, and even put up laws that forbade people from hunting it (but the punishment is only a small fine, so they should for sure increase this). The government also created 14 different protected areas to try to save them, but poachers are really hurting the populations even in these places. They have also paid and encouraged companies who run commercial breeding of the salamanders to release some of them back to the wild, which has been a huge help when it comes to keeping the populations from declining to rapidly.

In addition to being directly hunted, the salamanders also experienced a population decline because of habitat loss once the growing Chinese population began to expand their cities and villages. Some important populations also ended up as the victim of mining operations, where the runoff from the mining operations would end up in their rivers. Like most other amphibians, the Chinese giant salamanders are very sensitive to heavy metals and other toxic chemicals, so this lead to a lot of death.

This photo shows two Chinese giant salamanders that are for sale in a market in Hongqiao (虹桥), Wenzhou, Zhejiang, PR China. The price is just under $300 per kilo of meat. Photo by Micromesistius, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

There might actually be between 5 and 8 different species of Chinese giant salamander

As I said in the post title, new research has shown that there might not be such as thing as the Chinese giant salamander, but rather at least 5, and as much as 8 different species. By using genetic data, a research team from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences found out that there is enough genetic variability to classify many of the different populations of the salamander as an entirely different species.

While they look identical, there seem to be lots of genetic differences, which means that some of these species could be much closer to extinction than anyone believed. Since many of the samples were taken from captive salamanders, the researchers also believe that some of the species might already be extinct in the wild, and only live on in commercial breeding tanks, or in aquariums.

It might not seem like a huge deal that they are indeed many different species, but this will have a huge impact on the conservation efforts for them. After this point, conservationists needs to make sure that they do indeed release the correct species back to the correct location when they are trying to repopulate areas. A lot of populations might already be hybrids of the naturally occurring species and the repopulation species, which means that the release of more individuals into the wild might actually have been a negative thing for the species.

This new discovery is of course great, but it seem to be leading to a lot of confusion and problems when it comes to the conservation of the salamanders. One thing’s for sure though; both conservation groups, the Chinese government, and the farmers who release young salamanders back to the wild need to reconsider their strategy, and adapt it to be in line with this newly discovered information.

Thanks for reading

Thanks for reading about the Chinese giant salamander. I hope you found the post interesting, and please let me know in the comment section if there are anything else you might want to know about this/these species.
If you want to learn more about them in general, then I suggest “The giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae): Part B. Biogeography, ecology and reproduction” by Robert K Browne et al. You can read the paper for free by following this link. This is also the main source that was used for the biological and ecological information about the species.

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