Chinese Giant Salamander

Fascinating facts about the Chinese Giant Salamander

• The Chinese giant salamander can reach a length of 1.8 m and a weight of 50 kg, placing it just behind the South China giant salamander as the second-largest amphibian on Earth. The longest recent specimen, recorded on a farm in Zhangjiajie in 2007, measured exactly 1.8 m. Another exceptionally large individual weighing 59 kg was found in a remote Chongqing cave in December 2015.
• Since the 1950s the wild population of Chinese giant salamanders has declined by more than 80 %. The loss is driven by three main pressures: destruction of their rocky stream habitats, water pollution, and intensive harvesting for culinary delicacies and traditional medicine.
• Its calls include barking, whining, hissing and crying sounds that echo through the dark streams it inhabits. These vocalisations are unusual for salamanders and have been recorded as resembling a human infant's cry. Because of this uncanny similarity Chinese speakers call the animal "infant fish".
• DNA analysis in 2018 identified five genetically distinct wild clades of the salamander and two additional lineages known only from captive animals. The clades split from one another between 4.71 and 10.25 million years ago, a divergence that supports treating them as separate cryptic species. Despite such deep splits, individuals can still interbreed with each other and even with the Japanese giant salamander.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Chinese Giant Salamander

In the misty, primeval landscapes of China's mountainous regions, the Chinese Giant Salamander navigates its domain with a slow, deliberate grace, its sleek, mottled form undulating through the water like a living shadow. As it moves, its feathery gills wave gently, extracting oxygen from the currents, while its unblinking eyes survey the surroundings with an ancient, almost primeval wisdom. This majestic creature, one of the largest salamanders on the planet, is a poignant reminder of the fragility and beauty of a world that is rapidly disappearing, its very existence a testament to the enduring power of life in the face of adversity.

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