Photo: http://www.zdf.de/terra-x

They can grow up to two meters and lurk around dark lakes and rivers. They almost appear as if they’re from a long forgotten era. Some even say that they occasionally devour little children and honestly, I feel as if that could be true.

We are talking about the Chinese Giant Salamander, a creature from the deep waters that’s 1,80m long and can weigh up to 10kg and almost seems like something that’s from outer space. With its slightly smaller cousin, the Japanese Giant Salamander, they are the last living representatives of this species. I would say they’re quite primitive. Their big, bulky bodies are perfectly adapted to a life in the water. Their distinct features are their wide rudder tail ends and short limbs. Their eyesight is very bad but they compensate this with their organs, which help them sense their environment and are dispersed over their whole body, especially on the sides. The skin color of a Giant Salamander comes in a dark grey or red shade and is covered with spots and marbling. Furthermore, their heads are really big and bulky just like the rest of their bodies, really. Chinese Giant Salamanders are nocturnal and feed on everything that fits into their huge muzzles. Fish, frogs, crabs, you name it – I personally don’t want to cross paths with one of those creatures on my occasional baths at night.  But they’re as impressive looking as they’re endangered. They are able to reach an incredible age of 80 but that’s rather exception than the rule. The reason for this unfortunate situation is the fact that their natural habitat are frequently destroyed, the waters, in which they live, are being contaminated and on top of that they are seen as delicacy.

Giant Salamanders are a species which look as if they have roamed the earth together with dinosaurs. In times where amphibians were still ruling planet earth, however, our Giant Salamanders would’ve been small fish in the sea.

And yes, there haven’t been any confirmed attacks against humans, yet. So if you happen to come across one of those Giant Salamanders on one of your trips to China, feel free to observe them. Enjoy it because they’ve become really rare.

Foto: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinesischer_Riesensalamander

Copyright and Source:  http://www.zdf.de/terra-x ,  http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinesischer_Riesensalamander

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