Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had the privilege to see a Chinese Giant Salamander this weekend. It was about 5 feet long, head was about 1 foot wide and reminded me more of a small croc than a salamander. The pic is with my left hand to try and show some perspective. The enclosure was about 4 feet deep and he was laying at the bottom. The picture has been cropped a lot to fit on kingsnake. Enjoy.
Cheers, don

That's cool! Where was it? I saw a 5' long, 50 pound one on this "Amazing Amphibians" show on Animal Planet. Is it that one?
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

I met the researcher in that show last year and he told me that the giant salamander in that show had passed away.

Ed

The Giant Salamanders (Cryptobranchidae) are aquatic amphibians found in brooks and ponds in Japan, China and with a similar specimen in the United States. The Japanese Giant Salamander reaches 3 feet and feeds on fish and crustaceans.

During mating season, these salamanders will travel upstream where, after the fertilization of the eggs, the male will guard them for at least 6 months. At this point, the offspring will live off their noticeable stored fat until ready to hunt.

The giant salamander has been given a place in mythology. In one particular Asian myth, the salamander, although resembling a typical specimen, it makes its home in fires; the hotter the better. Early travellers to China were shown garments which, or so they were told, had been woven of wool from the salamander: the cloth was completely unharmed by fire. The garments had actually been woven from asbestos.

Genus Andrias (Giant Salamanders)
Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus)
Japanese Giant Salamander (Andrias japonicus)
Genus Cryptobranchus (Hellbenders)
Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis )
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This guy was seen at the st louis zoo off display area. They also have the largest captive population hellbenders in the world. They have a 30 foot indoor "river" in whinch they hope to breed them. They have 4 big adults and hundreds of younger ones that have been collected by uni's in the midwest. Interesting stuff,
cheers, don

Hi Don,
Actually one of the largest populations of captive Cryptobranchus (both alleganiensis and bishopi) are in one of the Universities in Missouri where they hatched portions of several clutches are are currently rearing them.

Ed

According to my sources, U of M supplied a lot of animals to St Louis Zoo. They had a conference at the zoo and all the hots shot from the uni's were there. U of M gave a large amount of animals to St L zoo. Information might be wrong, but I know that I saw more anmials than you can shake a stick at. If you have any new news, i would be interested to find out some more info.
Cheers, don

The larva at the Zoo are on loan from the University are spill over from the animals housed in the labs.
The original discussion over these animals occured at the Hellbender conference held in Georgia last year, I spoke to Mathis and some of the other researchers working with those animals at that time.
If you are interested in Cryptobranchids check out the Cryptobranchid Interest Groups website (the link is on the www.caudata.org website). If you are really interested please purchase a t-shirt as the proceeds support research into these animals so we can better determine conservation requirements.

Ed