VOLUME 5 (4) GIANT SALAMANDERS

INTERNATIONAL CHAPTER - AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE CONSERVATION 

NOTIFICATION:  This website and its affiliates are the official Internet website portals for the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal and our global conservation network.  We own all copyright, exclusive of authors copyright, produced by any proxy fraudulently presenting as Amphibian and Reptile Conservation including the fraudulent Amphibian & Reptile Conservation journal www.amphibian-reptile-conservation.org as published by the "Amphibian and Reptile Conservation organisation" as an unspecified group led by Craig Hassipakis. Craig Hassipakis has a long and dismal history of fraudulent activities, including recently committing perjury in an attack on our global conservation network, as we document see Internet Fraud

The Cryptobranchidae, the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidinaus), Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus), and North American giant salamander (Hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). Their iconic status, and especially those of the Chinese giant salamander with a length of 1.8 meters, and biopolitical significance has resulted in major and expanding initiatives, for their sustainable management. Knowledge of a wide range of scientific, in concert with cultural, political, and economic factors all contribute to cryptobranchid conservation biology and the formulation of optimal strategies for their sustainable management. These involve reliable and accurate survey methods, phylogeny and genetics, biogeography, ecology, reproduction, methods for research such as cell cultures, and surveys to determine population status.

The Chinese giant salamander is currently the most threatened cryptobranchid due mainly to over-harvest during the second half of the 20th century and habitat loss. The Japanese giant salamander appears to be slowly declining due to habitat modification. The North American giant salamander has large declines in the western sub-populations and increasing declines in most of its eastern populations, many due to low recruitment from unknown causes.

Here we present a series of reviews covering the survey methods; palaeontology, phylogeny, genetics, and morphology; Biogeography, ecology and reproduction; and the sustainable management of the Chinese giant salamander, Japanese giant salamander , and North American giant salamander, and a range of other articles including a lost highland population and  the pioneering achievement of first cell culture of the Chinese giant salamander or any giant salamander.

For notification of the publication of our articles in press "The giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae): Part C-1. Sustainable management – cultural context, populations and threats." and "The giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae): Part C-1. Sustainable management – cultural context, populations and threats." please join our members list at MEMBERSHIP

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Keywords: Chinese giant salamander, Japanaese giant salamander, North American giant salamander,  Andrias davidianus, Andrias japonicus, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, Hellbender, Snot otter, genetics, survey techniques, palaeontology, phylogeny, genetics, morphology, biogeography, ecology, reproduction, cell culture, Qinghai Provence, Peoples Republic of China, North America, Japan, United States of America.

Survey techniques for giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae) and other aquatic Caudata. 2011. Robert K Browne, Hong Li, Dale McGinnity, Sumio Okada, Wang Zhenghuan, Catherine M Bodinof, Kelly J Irwin, Amy McMillan, Jeffrey T Briggler. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation 5(4): 1-16. Low resolution PDF 1.2 MB High res. PDF 3.4 MB

Summary: The fully aquatic Cryptobranchids are the world’s largest amphibians and the three described species, the Chinese giant salamander, Japanese giant salamander, and North American giant salamander (Hellbender), range from threatened to critically endangered. Cryptobranchids present particular survey challenges because of their large demographic variation in body size from 3 cm larvae to 1.5 m adults, and the wide variation in their habitats and microhabitats. We review and compare the types and applications of survey techniques for Cryptobranchids and other aquatic Caudata from a conservation and animal welfare perspective.

The giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae): Part A. palaeontology, phylogeny, genetics, and morphology. 2012. Robert K. Browne, Hong Li, Zhenghuan Wang, Paul M. Hime, Amy McMillan, Minyao Wu, Raul Diaz, Zhang Hongxing, Dale McGinnity, Jeffrey T. Briggler. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation 5(4): 17-29. Low resolution PDF 1.2 MB    High res. PDF 2.5 MB

Summary: The Chinese giant salamander, Japanese giant salamander, and North American giant salamander (Hellbender), are the largest surviving amphibians and comprise two extant genera, Andrias and Cryptobranchus. Because of their iconic status as the world’s largest amphibians and their biopolitical significance, all cryptobranchids are subject to major and expanding initiatives for their sustainable management. Knowledge of a wide range of scientific, in concert with cultural, political, and economic factors all contribute to cryptobranchid conservation biology and the formulation of optimal strategies for their sustainable management. However, there has previously been no comparative review of the numerous scientific fields contributing to the knowledge of cryptobranchids, and little peer-reviewed material on the Chinese giant salamander or the Japanese giant salamander has been published in English. Here we present the first article in a review series about , the Chinese giant salamander, Japanese giant salamander, and North American giant salamander.

Summary: The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) and the Japanese (A. japonicus) giant salamander far exceed any other living amphibians in size, with the North American giant salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) also being one of the world’s largest amphibians. The Chinese giant salamander, Japanese giant salamander, and North American giant salamander, are biologically similar in many ways including extreme longevity, a highly conserved morphology, low metabolism, males brooding eggs, and large larvae. However, there are differences in cryptobranchids' habitat and diet, reproductive behavior and seasonality, fecundity, egg size, mating strategies and paternity.  In “The giant salamanders (Cryptobranchidae): Part B", we review cryptobranchid range and distribution, demography and growth, population density and size, habitat, territoriality and migration, diet, predators, and reproduction.

In vitro culture of skin cells from biopsies from the Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander, Andrias davidianus (Blanchard, 1871) (Amphibia, Caudata, Cryptobranchidae). 2013. Sarah Strauß, Thomas Ziegler, Christina Allmeling, Kerstin Reimers, Natalie Frank-Klein, Robert Seuntjens, Peter M. Vogt. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation 5(4):51–63. Low resolution PDF 3.2 MB  High res. PDF 4.0 MB

 Left - regeneration of Chinese giant salalamander tail after clipping, and right, a melanophore in cell culture.

Summary: We established a primary skin cell culture of the Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander, Andrias davidianus, from small biopsies using minimally invasive methodologies. Biopsies were taken from three animals simultaneously with assessment of two biopsy sampling techniques using samples from the tail tip. Cell culture was performed in a wet chamber at room temperature. Several culture media and supplementations were tested as well as culture containers and surface coatings. The handling of Chinese giant salamanders in a landing net without transfer out of the tank allowed easier biopsy withdrawal. Best outgrowth of cells from explants was achieved in 60% DMEM/F12 medium with supplementation. Cells started to grow out as monolayer within the first 12 hours, and after three weeks formed pigmented multilayers, then died after 10 weeks. Primary cultures of  Chinese giant salamander skin cells, as well as other amphibian primary cell cultures, can be used in future studies to evaluate effects of disease, pollution, regeneration, wound healing, and also could provide cells for use in reproduction technologies such as cryopreservation to preserve gene lines in this and other Critically Endangered amphibians with minimal harm.

A survey for the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus; Blanchard, 1871) in Qinghai Provence. 2014. Pierson TW, Yan F, Wang Y, Papenfuss T. 2014.  Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 8(1): 1-6.   Low resolution PDF 0.5 MB  High res. PDF 3.0 MB
Summary: The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) was once common, but it has declined precipitously in the past several decades. An enigmatic specimen of the Chinese giant salamander collected in 1966 represents the only historical record of the species from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. From June–July 2012, we conducted opportunistic community inquiries and field surveys in Qinghai to attempt to locate the Chinese giant salamander. We received anecdotal evidence that additionalthe Chinese giant salamanders  have been found in recent years, but we failed to discover any the Chinese giant salamanders  during our field surveys. We suspect that relict populations of the the Chinese giant salamander persist in Qinghai, but the significant degradation of stream quality in the region likely threatens the long-term survival of any remaining the Chinese giant salamanders. Here, we provide a brief overview of the conservation of the Chinese giant salamander, a summary of our surveys, and emphasize the importance of continued searches for this geographically disjunct population of the the Chinese giant salamander. We recognise authors copyright for the articles presented on this page as open access, but consider the publishing website in violation of our copyright. In respect to the unusual page numbering and Volume/Issue indexing, the format used is not that of our official journal, and in fact any journal we know of. We include these articles on our website as a responsibility to our authors, as the articles have been fraudulently solicited by Craig Hassipakis as a representative of the Amphibian and Reptile journal. We are doing our best to prevent further problems.

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