Giant Salamander

A high school student “Yu” from Kyoto, Japan has discovered a giant Salamander casually walking down a footpath on his journey to class. He called the police to watch on, so he was not late for school, as the amphibious creature made its way back to the river. The Japanese giant salamander, is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List as a near threatened species. They can grow up to 150cm most found in the wild are between 60-70cm long according to Japanese environment agency data. Continue reading for another video and more information. Click here to view more pictures of giant slamanders.

Giant salamanders, some growing up to 5-feet in length, face a barrier of dams in Japan, built to control flooding. Now it’s hoped a new system will help these giant amphibians get upstream past the dams to lay their eggs. Unlike other salamanders, which lose their gills early in their lifecycles, they only breach their heads above the surface to obtain air without venturing out of the water and onto land. It has very poor eyesight, and possesses special sensory cells covering its skin, running from head to toe, the lateral line system. These sensory cells’ hair-like shapes detect minute vibrations in the environment, and are quite similar to the hair cells of the human inner ear.

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