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Animal profile

Chinese Giant Salamander

Andrias davidianus

AmphibiaCool mountain streams and rocky poolsCritically Endangered

Field profile

The Chinese giant salamander is among the largest living amphibians, with reliable records approaching 1.8 metres in total length. It is fully aquatic, nocturnal, and hunts by sensing water movement rather than by sight. Wild populations have collapsed under harvesting for the luxury food trade, and most animals now alive are in commercial farms.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2024-02-17

Chinese Giant Salamander

The Chinese giant salamander is more than one species

What was long treated as a single wide-ranging giant has turned out to be a cluster of genetically distinct lineages. Decades of moving farmed animals between river systems mixed those lineages before anyone recognised they were separate.

Read with evidence →

Chinese Giant Salamander | Daily Animal Facts