Japanese giant salamander

Appearance

Japanese giant salamanders can grow to be five feet long and 55 pounds . The largest wild specimen on record weighed 26.3 kg and was 136 cm long. It is the second largest amphibian in the world, only next to its close relative, the Chinese giant salamander. Their brown and black mottled skin provides camouflage against the bottoms of streams and rivers. They have very small eyes with no eyelids and poor eye sight. Their mouths run across the width of their heads, and can open to the width of their bodies.

These salamanders poses extremely large skin folds on their neck that effectively increase their overall body surface area. This assists in epidermal gas exchanges, which in turn regulates carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange with the water. Capillaries in the surface of the skin facilitate this gas exchange.

They can be distinguished from Chinese giant salamanders by the arrangement of tubercles on the head and throat. The tubercles are larger and more numerous compared to the mostly single and irregularly scattered tubercles of the Chinese giant salamander. The snout is also more rounded and the tail is slightly shorter.

There is no visual external sexual dimorphism.

Status

The Japanese giant salamander is threatened by pollution, habitat loss , and overcollection. River disturbance has led to fewer appropriate nesting sites and dams block migration paths. It is considered Near Threatened by IUCN, and is included on CITES Appendix I. It can be found on the islands of Kyushu, Honshu, and Shikoku in Japan. In the past, they were fished out of rivers and streams as a source of food, but hunting has ceased because of protection acts.

The Japanese giant salamander has been federally protected as a special natural monument by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs since 1952 due to its cultural and educational significance.

Behavior

The Japanese giant salamander, being restricted to streams with clear, cool water, is entirely aquatic and nocturnal. Unlike other salamanders, which lose their gills early in their lifecycles, they only breach their heads above the surface to obtain air without venturing out of the water and onto land. Also due to their large size and lack of gills, they are confined to flowing water where oxygen is abundant. The salamander absorbs oxygen through its skin, which has many folds to increase surface area.

When threatened, these salamanders can excrete a strong-smelling, milky substance with an odor resembling Japanese pepper . It has very poor eyesight, and possesses special sensory cells covering its skin, running from head to toe, the lateral line system. These sensory cells' hair-like shapes detect minute vibrations in the environment, and are quite similar to the hair cells of the human inner ear. This feature is essential for its hunting because of its poor eyesight.

It feeds mainly on insects, frogs and fish. It has a very slow metabolism and can sometimes go for weeks without eating. It lacks natural competitors. It is a long-lived species, with the captive record being an individual that lived in the Natura Artis Magistra, the Netherlands, for 52 years. In the wild, they may live for nearly 80 years.

Evolution

The Japanese giant salamander was first catalogued by Europeans when the resident physician of Dejima Island in Nagasaki, Philipp Franz von Siebold, captured an individual and shipped it back to Leiden in the Netherlands, in the 1820s. The species was designated as a special natural monument in 1951, and is federally protected.

Cultural

The Japanese giant salamander has been the subject of legend and artwork in Japan, for example, in the ''ukiyo-e'' work by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
The well-known Japanese mythological creature known as the ''kappa'' may be inspired by the Japanese giant salamander.

There is a giant salamander festival every year on August 8 in Yubara, Maniwa City, Okayama prefecture to honour the animal and celebrate its life. The giant salamanders are called "Hanzaki" in Yubara, due to the belief that even if they are ripped in half they continue to survive. There are two giant salamander floats: a dark male and a red female.

As of 2017, a picture book entitled "Zakihan" was also published in both Japanese and English wherein the main character is a "hanzaki" called "Zakihan".