Critically Endangered
Chinese giant salamander
Andrias davidianus
Chinese giant salamander is a salamander in the family Cryptobranchidae (order Caudata) — Andrias davidianus, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to China.
Appearance
Its color is typically dark brown with a mottled or speckled pattern, but it can also be other brownish tones, dark reddish, or black. Albinos, that are white or orange, have been recorded. All species of giant salamanders produce a sticky, white skin secretion that repels predators.
The average adult salamander weighs 25–30 kg (55–66 lb) and is 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in length.
Range and habitat
Their native ranges differ, but release of Chinese giant salamanders from captivity has complicated this picture. Their range spans the area from Qinghai east to Jiangsu and south to Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guangdong. Notably in the basins of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Pearl Rivers. One clade is from the Pearl River basin (at least in Guangxi), two from the Yellow River basin, one from the Yangtze River basin (at least in Chongqing and Guizhou), and the final from the Qiantang River (at least in Anhui).
Despite the Chinese Government listing the salamander as a Class II Protected Species, 100 salamanders are hunted illegally every year in the Hupingshan Natural Nature Reserve alone. Since the 1980s, 14 nature reserves have been established as an effort to conserve the species.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
The female lays 400–500 eggs in an underwater breeding cavity, that is guarded by the male until the eggs hatch after 50–60 days. The external gills start to slowly decrease in size around 9 to 16 months, the rate of this phenomenon occurs in relation to the rate of dissolved oxygen, breeding density, water temperatures, and individual differences.
It is fully aquatic, and is endemic to rocky mountain streams and lakes in the Yangtze river basin of central China.
In crisis
It is considered critically endangered in the wild due to habitat loss, pollution, and overcollection, as it is considered a delicacy and used in traditional Chinese medicine. Although protected under Chinese law and CITES Appendix I, the wild population has declined by more than an estimated 80% since the 1950s. Since the 1950s, the population has declined rapidly due to habitat destruction and overhunting.
It has been listed as Critically Endangered in the Chinese Red Book of Amphibians and Reptiles. Despite this, the population continues to decline with the salamanders becoming increasingly difficult to find.
Salamanders disappear when seeps are capped, caves are disturbed, or a pathogen moves through a mountain range.
Chinese giant salamander is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Chinese giant salamander, Wikidata item Q61312. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
