Chinese giant salamander

The world's largest amphibian

The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is the largest living amphibian on the planet: including its tail it can reach up to about 1.8 metres, although wild individuals today are usually far smaller. Its bulky, flattened body has wrinkled brown skin with broad lateral folds, a wide head and tiny eyes. Like other cryptobranchids it breathes almost entirely through its skin, absorbing oxygen directly from the water.

Habitat and range

It is endemic to the rocky mountain streams and lakes of the Yangtze river basin in central China, where it favours cold, clear, well-oxygenated water. It has also been introduced to Kyoto Prefecture in Japan and possibly to Taiwan. It lives hidden among rocks and in cavities on the streambed, emerging mainly at night.

Behaviour and diet

It is a nocturnal ambush predator, feeding on fish, crayfish, aquatic insects, frogs and small amphibians, which it sucks in with a swift snap of its large mouth. Its eyesight is poor, so it detects prey through skin sensors that pick up vibrations in the water. Females lay eggs in underwater dens, where the male guards them until they hatch.

Did you know?

It belongs to a very ancient group of amphibians that has changed little over tens of millions of years, and is regarded as a true living fossil. It is among the priority species of the EDGE project, which protects evolutionarily unique and threatened animals.

Conservation

The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered. Habitat loss and degradation, pollution and above all overcollection — it is prized as a delicacy and used in traditional medicine — have decimated wild populations. It is farmed on a large scale in China, but many animals on the farms are still taken from the wild.