Amphibians
South China Giant Salamander
Andrias sligoi · also called south china giant salamander, giant salamander
The South China giant salamander is the biggest amphibian in the world — a flattened, wrinkled, ambush predator that grew to nearly two metres in the mountain rivers of southern China. It is also one of the most endangered, hunted for the luxury food trade until it all but vanished from the wild, and only recognised as a species in its own right in 2019.
Overview
The South China giant salamander historically lived in the rivers of the Pearl River system in southern China. It is the largest living amphibian, recorded to about 1.8 m and possibly approaching two metres, with a heavy flattened body, tiny eyes, a broad head, and loose frilled folds of skin along its flanks. It ambushes fish, crabs, frogs, and smaller salamanders with a sideways snap of its wide mouth.
Skin-breathing
It has small, weak lungs and takes up most of its oxygen through its skin, especially the side folds, which is why it needs cool, fast, well-oxygenated water. Giant salamanders also make crying, barking sounds — the source of the local name wa wa yu, “baby fish.”
Hunted to the edge
Prized as a luxury and medicinal food, the species was taken from the wild for decades. A later farming boom involving millions of animals added a new problem: mixed and non-native farm stock released into the last wild rivers threatens to swamp the remaining pure population. Surveys now find almost no genuine wild individuals.
Status
The South China giant salamander is Critically Endangered and effectively gone from the wild. Large numbers exist on farms, but few are confirmed pure, and coordinated conservation breeding — starting with genetic screening — is only now being organised. It was described as a distinct species in 2019, using a specimen that had lived at London Zoo since 1924.
South China Giant Salamander: common questions
Is the South China giant salamander really the largest amphibian?
Yes. Giant salamanders of the genus Andrias are the largest amphibians alive, far bigger than any frog or any other salamander, and within the genus the South China species reached the greatest size, with historical records approaching two metres in total length and old accounts of even larger animals. The related Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders are slightly smaller. All are dwarfed by some extinct amphibians from hundreds of millions of years ago, but among living amphibians the South China giant salamander is the record holder.
Why was it only named as a species in 2019?
For a long time all the giant salamanders in China were treated as a single species, the Chinese giant salamander. As genetic tools improved, researchers found that Chinese giant salamanders actually form several distinct lineages that had been separated for millions of years by China's mountain ranges and river basins. One of these, from the Pearl River region in the south, was formally described in 2019 as Andrias sligoi, the South China giant salamander, using as its reference specimen a large animal that had lived at London Zoo decades earlier.
Why is it so endangered?
Chiefly because it is eaten. Giant salamander meat has been a high-status luxury and traditional medicine in China, and wild animals were caught for the table for decades, which alone would have driven a slow-growing, late-maturing river animal into decline. Then a large farming industry grew up to supply the demand, raising millions of salamanders, but farm stock is often of mixed or unknown origin, and releases and escapes of these animals into wild rivers threaten to swamp or replace the remaining pure South China salamanders. Dams, pollution, and habitat loss add further pressure.
Can it be saved?
There is a path, but it is difficult. The raw material exists, in that farms hold very large numbers of giant salamanders, but conservationists must first identify which farmed animals are genuinely South China giant salamanders and are not hybrids, then establish carefully managed breeding groups, and finally find and protect river habitat clean and cool enough to release them into. Work on genetic screening and on identifying priority rivers is under way, coordinated between Chinese authorities and international partners, but a self-sustaining wild population is still a long way off.