200-Year-Old Chinese Giant Salamander in Cave Near Chongqing, China

Caves near the lakes and the streams in the rocky mountain terrain of central, south, and southwest China furnish habitat niches for the Chinese giant salamander.

Scientists give as the discovery site for the world’s oldest Chinese giant salamander a flood in a cave outside the town of Chongqing in southwest China. Wang Yong, a local fisherman, has credit for the discovery while checking the something “soft and slimy” that he stepped on after going inside the cave. Wang Yong also is credited with acting upon the Chinese giant salamander’s physical distress by contacting experts about transport to a specialized care and research facility.

One-hundred-seventy-million-year-old Cryptobranchidae (gill-hiding) family lineages justify the Chinese giant salamander’s nickname “living fossil.” 

Mountain-dwellers know of the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus, Père Armand David’s image of man) as wa wa yu (“baby fish”) because of crying child-like vocalizations.

Scientists also list barking and hissing sounds among the repertory of vocalizations by the night-active, poor-sighted, slow-moving predator of crabs, fish, insects, other amphibians, and shrimps. Adult Chinese giant salamanders mature to average lengths of 3.77 feet (1.15 meters) and to weight ranges of 55 to 66 pounds (25 to 30 kilograms). Adult males need to guard 400- to 500-egg deposits dug into underwater cavities and hatched 50 to 60 days after mating seasons between July and September.

Tube-riddled sides for detecting water-transmitted vibrations offer the salamander defensive and predatory advantages.

Little prevents agro-industrialists from clearing, fragmenting, and reconfiguring Chinese giant salamander habitat and hunters from supplying salamander parts for culinary delicacies, traditional medicines, and trophy collections.

Population declines by more than 80 percent since the 1970s qualify Chinese giant salamanders for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s critically endangered red list. They also result in getting Chinese giant salamanders included on the EDGE Project’s list of 10 focal evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species as of 2008. Wang Yong’s four-foot-seven-inch (1.22-meter), 104-pound (47.17-kilogram) salamander’s advanced age and declining health suggest conflicting ecosystem assessments since amphibians are keystone obligates of environmental degradation or sustainability.

Attention currently turns to saving one particularly aged, ailing Chinese giant cave salamander. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus) is world's largest living amphibian, with average adult lengths of 3.77 feet (1.15 meters) and to weight ranges of 55 to 66 pounds (25 to 30 kilograms).
Shanghai Ocean Aquarium (SOA), No.1388 Lujiazui Ring Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, East China: J. Patrick Fischer, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009_Andrias_davidianus.JPG

fossil of Chinese Giant Salamander's lookalike, extinct Andrias scheuchzeri
Andrias scheuchzeri is known only from fossils that date the giant salamander to Oligocene (about 33.9 million to 23 million years BP [before present]) and Pliocene (about 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP).
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg state, southwest Germany; Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010, 11:36: H. Zell, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrias_scheuchzeri_01.jpg

Chinese Giant Salamanders are considered culinary delicacies.
two Andrias davidianus in restaurant in east central coastal province of Zhejiang
Wenzhou, southeastern Zhejiang province, east central coastal China; Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, 13:20: Micromesistius, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrias_davidianus_Hongqiaozhen.jpg

"200-year-old Giant salamander found alive in China" (0:55)
Uploaded December 15, 2015, by Sploid to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCMZGPcRSOQ

Extant Chinese Giant Salamander and extinct Andrias scheuchzeri are considered as lookalikes and sometimes as synonymous.
restoration of Andrias scheuchzeri: FunkMonk (Michael B. H.), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrias.jpg

The Chinese Giant Salamander usually has a sit-and-wait strategy for attacking prey that approach face-to-face.
The world's largest living amphibian, however, also engages in sideways attacks by biting with one side of its mouth.
closeup of head of Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus): Egon Heiss, CC BY 4.0, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/532555

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