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Chinese giant Salamander

We start the week with a somewhat peculiar amphibian, some can be really amazing for their shapes and places where it lives, China is a country that hosts unique biodiversity on the planet, so today we talk about the giant Chinese salamander. Come with me to learn more about this incredible creature.

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Its scientific name is Cryptobranchidae and although it is not the only giant salamander this is the largest of this family there are three genera, the giant American salamander and the giant salamander of Japan. Among its most important features we find that the head is prominent, large in size compared to the rest of the body, while their eyes are tiny, their skin is rough and corrugated and has shades of dark.

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The salamander is an amphibian with developed lungs, but it can also breathe through the skin, in addition its larvae have gills, but in the process of metamorphosis they manage to develop the capacity to breathe through the lungs, its maximum length in adult stage is almost 2 meters long, and its maximum weight is 70 kilograms, for something it has earned the title of being the largest amphibian on the planet.

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When their reproduction we can say that are the months of August and September chosen by this species for mating, females lay up to 500 eggs that take to move to their next life cycle (larvae) in 15 weeks at most, their life takes underwater rarely going outdoors, their legs are too short to walk on the surface and in the water they use them to maintain the balance because the rest only nothing. The mutual attraction in time of mating is possible thanks to pheromones that releases the female-attracting the males and also tend to be disputed to be able to procreate for which many males arrive to die product of the intense fights.

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It should be noted that the male is responsible for incubating the eggs protecting the young from any threat, while this happens the female hunts to feed the male, even so, the male loses up to 50% of its body weight by inactivity.

This species goes through a series of changes produced by metamorphosis so they actually develop as they grow, although at birth they already have some similarity to the definitive traits they will have as adults, something very different from frogs whose larvae do not resemble the definitive traits at all.

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As its name indicates, the giant Chinese salamander is located in mountainous forests in places such as the flow of important rivers where the water is cold, when it comes to the surface it is only to take air for 30 minutes maximum in some cases it can be less time, everything depends on the demand of its body, in the day it usually rests and at night it is dedicated to feeding itself.

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Currently this species is under threat of critical extinction, the dark side of China is its ability to eat virtually anything that moves, and the salamander is a luxury dish in many expensive restaurants in China, is also used in traditional Chinese medicine, so its price is very expensive, I must also add the amount of pollution produced in the forests.

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Another problem is the lack of legal regulation that prohibits the hunting of the salamander, not being protected only some animal rescue organizations are the ones that carry the control and statistics of this species that is destined to disappear if the behavior of poachers and doctors who use the salamander as medicine is not corrected in time.