do you have a moment to talk about cthulhu
That’s a Chinese giant salamander. These guys are awesome!
There are three species of giant salamanders in the world, found respectively in China, Japan and the eastern US. For extra cool points, the US species is called the hellbender. (But it immediately loses those points for its other name, ‘snot otter.’ Nobody knows why they’re called hellbenders, but it’s pretty clear why they’re called snot otters.)
They’re the world’s largest living amphibians. The Chinese and Japanese species can reach 5 to 6 feet long, while the hellbender clocks in at about 1 to 3 feet, and they can live 50 years or more. They like to live in the muddy banks of clear, cool, quick-flowing rivers and lakes, and sometimes in dark watery caves because they are nocturnal and have crummy eyesight anyway. You–yes, you!–might have walked right past one sometime when you were fishing or hiking. This could explain why you’d swear you saw that log move that one time…
As members of a family that dates back to 170 million years, they are considered ‘living fossils’–species whose continued existence can give us clues to earlier ages of the Earth and help us understand what can make a species resilient to change after change in climate and ecology.
But unfortunately, all three species are threatened or endangered (critically endangered in the Chinese salamander’s case), because you can probably imagine how rough pollution, habitat loss and climate change are on gigantic salamanders. Not to mention the Chinese consider them an expensive delicacy.
Giant salamanders can make noise, including barking and whining noises. Check it out!
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