Post by Garrison HilliardFishing for information - I know that Tom Slick had an interest in giant =
salamanders in the Pacific Northwest of the US; there are supposed to be =
large known salamanders in the Orient. I have never seen an image of =
one, do not know the species name, and know nothing of the statistics =
(size reached, weight, etc.). Does anyone know if this is an actual =
animal, and if so, any of the information of which I've proven my woeful =
ignorance?
TIA
Kevin
Hunting threat to big amphibians
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website, in Washington DC
Giant salamander numbers have fallen sharply
Illegal hunting is bringing the Chinese giant salamander, the world's largest
amphibian, to the brink of extinction.
Numbers of the salamander, which can grow to 50kg (110lb), have fallen sharply
in recent decades.
Ways to stem the decline of amphibians are being discussed at a meeting in
Washington DC, which will end with the launch of a global action plan.
Some experts think the giant salamander can become a flagship conservation
species like the tiger and elephant.
With a maximum length of a metre and a half (5ft), the giant salamanders of
China and Japan are truly huge compared with other amphibians.
But their very size makes them easy and lucrative prey for hunters, who can sell
the flesh for around US$100 per kg (£30 per lb).
They are protected species; but in China, illegal hunting is bringing them
within sight of extinction.
How many there are left nationally is not known; but where populations have been
studied, falls of around 80% in three generations - about 45 years - have been
registered.
"In the 1960s, more than 15,000 kg were harvested each year from one single
prefecture in Hunan province," Michael Lau, an amphibian and reptile specialist
at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong, told the BBC News website.
"Then in the 1970s, only around 2,500 to 3,000 could be harvested each year.
They are easy to catch, hiding in rock crevasses during the day, and people know
where to find them."
Over-harvesting
Dr Lau chairs the working group looking at "over-harvesting" of amphibians at
the Washington summit.
The group has collated evidence showing that a large number of species are being
collected at unsustainable levels, for food, medicine, and the pet trade; it is
one factor, though not the biggest, behind the global decline in amphibians
which sees almost a third of species at some risk of extinction.
More than 30 varieties of amphibian are used in Chinese traditional medicine
use.
"China is the country where this is the biggest problem," said Dr Lau, "but in
many South-East Asian countries, frog is a staple food item.
"There is also a problem with African species such as the goliath frog from
Cameroon, the largest frog in the world, which is hunted as food; and then there
is the pet trade, with animals like the Mantellas from Madagascar."
In the market
The meeting here also heard of widespread hunting for food and medicine in south
and central America.
"In various parts of Bolivia and Peru, for example, frogs are eaten as food by
locals and by tourists," Esteban Lavilla from the Fundacíon Miguel Lillo in
Argentina told the BBC News website.
"Some recipes call for 30 frogs for a single dish. Then you have local people
taking them for medicine as well; and there are connections to magic, so that
for example the picture of someone may be put in the mouth of a frog and the
mouth sewn up - that would be someone that you don't like."
The deliberations here have concluded that a range of actions is needed to
combat over-harvesting; developing specific plans for each threatened species,
raising awareness among local people, monitoring trade, lobbying for law
enforcement and introducing programmes of sustainable use where appropriate.
But the problem remains that some species are needed as a staple source of
protein, while others are highly profitable.
Changing of the times
Michael Lau believes that attitudes towards amphibians are changing down the
human generations.
"In Hong Kong people ate all kinds of animals in the 1960s - frogs, snakes,
birds and so on.
"But nowadays the young people don't want to eat them - the mainstream sentiment
has shifted to conserving wildlife.
"If older people want to eat them now, they have to go across the border."
For some species, like the Chinese giant salamander, the question is whether
mainstream sentiment will change fast enough to prevent them disappearing
completely.
(Nice photos at site)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4259596.stm
Close encounters with Japan's 'living fossil'
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
It soon becomes clear that the giant salamander has hit Claude Gascon's
enthusiasm button smack on the nose.
"This is a dinosaur, this is amazing," he enthuses.
"We're talking about salamanders that usually fit in the palm of your hand. This
one will chop your hand off."
As a leader of Conservation International's (CI) scientific programmes, and
co-chair of the Amphibian Specialist Group with the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Dr Gascon has seen a fair few frogs and
salamanders in his life; but little, he says, to compare with this.
The skeleton of this species is almost identical to that of the fossil from 30
million years ago; therefore it's called the 'living fossil'
Dr Takeyoshi Tochimoto
Fortunately for all of our digits, this particular giant salamander is in no
position to chop off anything, trapped in a tank in the visitors' centre in
Maniwa City, about 800km west of Tokyo.
But impressive it certainly is: about 1.7m (5ft 6in) long, covered in a leathery
skin that speaks of many decades passed, with a massive gnarled head covered in
tubercles whose presumed sensitivity to motion probably helped it catch fish by
the thousand over its lifetime.
If local legend is to be believed, though, this specimen is a mere tadpole
compared with the biggest ever seen around Maniwa.
A 17th Century tale, related to us by cultural heritage officer Takashi Sakata,
tells of a salamander (or hanzaki, in local parlance) 10m long that marauded its
way across the countryside chomping cows and horses in its tracks.
A local hero was found, one Mitsui Hikoshiro, who allowed the hanzaki to swallow
him whole along with his trusty sword - which implement he then used, in the
best heroic tradition, to rend the beast from stem to stern.
It proved not to be such a good move, however.
Crops failed, people started dying in mysterious ways - including Mr Hikoshiro
himself.
Pretty soon the villagers drew the obvious conclusion that the salamander's
spirit was wreaking revenge from beyond the grave, and must be placated. That is
why Maniwa City boasts a shrine to the hanzaki.
The story illustrates the cultural importance that this remarkable creature has
in some parts of Japan.
Its scientific importance, meanwhile, lies in two main areas: its "living
fossil" identity, and its apparently peaceful co-existence with the chytrid
fungus that has devastated so many other amphibian species from Australia to the
Andes.
Close family
"The skeleton of this species is almost identical to that of the fossil from 30
million years ago," recounts Takeyoshi Tochimoto, director of the Hanzaki
Institute near Hyogo.
"Therefore it's called the 'living fossil'."
The hanzaki (Andrias japonicus) only has two close living relatives: the Chinese
giant salamander (A. davidianus) , which is close enough in size and shape and
habits that the two can easily cross-breed, and the much smaller hellbender
(Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) of the south-eastern US.
Creatures rather like these were certainly around when dinosaurs dominated life
on land, and fossils of the family have been found much further afield than
their current tight distribution - in northern Europe, certainly, where
scientists presumed the the lineages had gone extinct until tales of the strange
Oriental forms made their way back to the scientific burghers of Vienna and
Leiden a couple of centuries ago.
"They are thought to be extremely primitive species, partly due to the fact that
they are the only salamanders that have external fertilisation," says Don
Church, a salamander specialist with CI.
The fertilisation ritual must be quite some sight.
Into a riverbank den that is usually occupied by the dominant male (the
"den-master") swim several females, and also a few other males.
The den-master and the females release everything they have got, turning
incessantly to stir the eggs and spermatozoa round in a roiling mass.
Maybe the lesser males sneak in a package or two as well; their function in the
ménage-a-many is not completely clear.
They have bacteria living on their skin that produce peptides that are lethal
to the amphibian chytrid fungus
Don Church, Conservation International
When the waters still, everyone but the den-master leaves; and he alone guards
the nest and its juvenile brood.
It is not an ideal method of reproduction.
Research shows that genetic diversity among the hanzaki is smaller than it might
be, partly as a result of the repeated polygamy, which in turn leaves them more
prone to damage through environmental change.
But for the moment, it seems to work.
Outside the breeding season, the salamander's life appears to consist of
remaining as inconspicuous as possible in the river (whether hiding in leaves,
as the small ones do, or under the riverbanks like their larger fellows) and
snapping whatever comes within reach, their usual meandering torpor transformed
in an instant as the smell of a fish brushes by.
The adults' jaws are not to be treated lightly.
Among Dr Tochimoto's extensive collection of photos is one of bloodied human
hands; and as he warns: "you may be attacked and injured; please be careful".
When the chytrid fungus was identified just over a decade ago, indications were
that Japan would be an unlikely place to look for its origins.
With the discovery of chytrid on museum specimens of the African clawed frog
(Xenopus laevis) , an out-of-Africa migration spurred by human transportation of
amphibians once seemed the simple likelihood.
But just last year, a team of researchers led by Koichi Goka from Japan's
National Institute for Environmental Studies published research showing that
certain strains of chytrid were present on Japanese giant salamanders, and only
on Japanese giant salamanders, including museum specimens from a century or so
back; and that the relationship seemed benign.
AMPHIBIANS: A QUICK GUIDE
First true amphibians evolved about 250m years ago
There are three orders: frogs (including toads), salamanders (including newts)
and caecilians, which are limbless
Adapted to many different aquatic and terrestrial habitats
Present today on every continent except Antarctica
Many undergo metamorphosis, from larvae to adults
The hanzaki-loving strains of chytrid appear to differ from those that are
proving so virulent to amphibians now.
Unravelling all that, says Don Church, might tell us something about the origins
and spread of chytrid - and there is so much diversity among Japanese chytrid
strains that the country is now being touted as a possible origin, as diversity
often implies a long evolutionary timeframe.
More importantly, the discovery might also provide options for treating the
infection.
"In the case of the North American salamanders, what was found was that they
have bacteria living on their skin that produce peptides that are lethal to the
amphibian chytrid fungus," says Dr Church.
"And those bacteria might be able to be transplanted to other species that can't
fight off the fungus."
This is a line of research that is very much in play in laboratories around the
world.
It appears likely now that studies of the Japanese giant salamander can expand
the number of chytrid-fighting bacteria known to science, and so extend the
options for developing treatments for an infection that currently cannot be
controlled in the wild.
But that can only come to pass if the giant salamanders endure; something that
is not guaranteed, with the challenges they face in modern Japan including,
perhaps, new strains of chytrid itself.
There is as yet no modern hero able to still the pace of habitat loss or prevent
invasion from rival species.
Richard Black will examine threats to the Japanese giant salamander, and what is
being done to combat those threats, in a second article
Story from BBC NEWS:
(Mega cool video at website)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8497330.stm
Published: 2010/02/04 01:02:21 GMT