Chinese giant salamander
Andrias davidianus
— Where the name comes from
Andrias means “image of a man”, and the name arises from one of palaeontology’s most celebrated errors: in 1726 the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer described a fossil skeleton as Homo diluvii testis, “the man who witnessed the Flood”, convinced he had a drowned sinner before him. A century later Cuvier showed it was a giant salamander, and the genus kept the name.
— Facts
- Group
- Amphibians · Amphibia
- Order
- Salamanders
- Habitat
- Cold rocky mountain streams, between 300 and 1,500 metres
- Range
- Central and southern China
- Size
- 100–150 cm, up to 180 cm; 25–50 kg
- Diet
- Fish, crayfish, frogs, aquatic insects
- Lifespan
- 50 years, over 60 in captivity
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the largest amphibian in the world.
- 02
Its eyes are tiny and it hunts by sensing vibration through the skin.
- 03
The male defends a den under the rocks and gathers the eggs of several females there.
— What sets it apart
China farms millions of them for meat, and that has produced a paradox: the species is nearly extinct in the wild while the farms are bursting. Genetic analysis then showed that at least five distinct species hide under this one name, separated by millions of years and by different river basins — and that “restocking” releases, made with farm animals of mixed origin, are mixing them all together. A conservation policy applied before anyone knew what was being conserved.
