What are the characteristics of the Chinese giant salamander's habits?
The Chinese giant salamander generally hides in the crevices of mountain streams, with its burrow located below the water surface. At night it quietly waits in the stone piles at the mouth of the rapids, and once it spots prey passing by, it launches a sudden attack. Because the teeth in its mouth are sharp and densely packed, prey finds it very hard to escape once inside its mouth. The Chinese giant salamander has a strong ability to endure hunger; kept in cool water, it will not starve to death even without eating for two or three years. At the same time it can also gorge itself, and a single full meal can increase its body weight by one fifth. When food is scarce, cannibalism can occur, and it will even eat its own eggs to stave off hunger. It usually hides away, and likes to make the color of its body match the surrounding stones so that predators will not spot it.
The Chinese giant salamander is mainly distributed in Asia. Apart from no reports from **, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan, China, it is found in all other provinces and regions, mainly in the mountain streams of the middle and upper tributaries of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River.
The native natural distribution of the Chinese giant salamander is mainly concentrated in five major regions of China: first, Zhangjiajie, Jiangyong, Yueyang and the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture in Hunan, and Wuyishan in Fujian; second, Fangxian, Shennongjia, Guifeng Mountain in Macheng, and Tiantangzhai in Luotian in Hubei; third, Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo in Shaanxi; fourth, Zunyi in Guizhou and Yibin, Xingwen, Hulukou in Weiyuan, and Nanjiang in Bazhong in Sichuan; fifth, Jing'an in Jiangxi. Other scattered distributions include Hefeng, Lichuan and Enshi in Hubei, Liuzhou and Yulin in Guangxi, Tianshui [4] and Wenxian in Gansu, Luanchuan County, Lushi County and Hao County in Henan, Baotianman in Neixiang, Nanyang, Yuanqu County in Shanxi, Qingyuan in Zhejiang, Qiandongnan in Guizhou, and Tianchi on Fenghuang Mountain in Chaozhou. Among these, Jing'an County was the first in the country to issue a public notice protecting the Chinese giant salamander starting in the 1970s, then established the country's first Chinese giant salamander nature reserve and the country's first county-level Chinese giant salamander research institute. In 2001, it designated the Chinese giant salamander as the county mascot. Jing'an County's achievements in artificial breeding technology for the Chinese giant salamander lead the country, and having passed appraisal by relevant experts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it possesses the technical conditions for large-scale development and utilization of the Chinese giant salamander. In August 2005, it was awarded the title of “Hometown of the Chinese Giant Salamander in China” by the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association.
According to statistics, the natural resource stock of the Chinese giant salamander is about 90,000 individuals, with the resources in hilly and mountainous areas being more abundant. In economically developed areas, resources are even more insufficient due to intensifying industrial pollution. The Daba Mountain area of Nanjiang County in Bazhong City, Sichuan, with its high mountains and dense forests, and with no industrial pollution in the Daba Mountains, is the best environment for the Chinese giant salamander's survival.
The Chinese giant salamander is fierce by nature and carnivorous, feeding on aquatic insects, fish, crabs, shrimp, frogs, snakes, soft-shelled turtles, rats, birds and so on. Its hunting method is “waiting by a stump for a hare”. Its teeth cannot chew; it simply opens its mouth and swallows food whole, then slowly digests it in its stomach.
The female Chinese giant salamander lays eggs between July and August each year, depositing them inside rock cavities, with each female laying more than 300 eggs; the remaining task of raising them is left to the male. The male curls its body into a semicircle, encircling the eggs so they are not washed away by water or harmed by enemies, until the young salamanders hatch after 2 to 3 weeks. After 15 to 40 days, the small “baby fish” disperse to live on their own, and only then will the male leave. The Chinese giant salamander also has the longest lifespan among amphibians; under artificial rearing conditions, it can live as long as 130 years.