South China Giant Salamander
Andrias sligoi
South China Giant Salamander (Andrias sligoi): Possibly the Largest Amphibian
The South China giant salamander (Andrias sligoi) is a fully aquatic giant salamander from the Pearl River region of southern China. The largest amphibian ever reported, a 1.8 m animal from Guizhou, was probably one.
- Habitat
- Rocky mountain streams and rivers; fully aquatic
- Size
- Record about 1.8 m (likely this species); living males in Japan 1.25–1.375 m
- Diet
- Ambush predator of crabs, frogs, fish and insects (from close relatives)
- Range
- Pearl River basin and Nanling Mountains, southern China
- Conservation
- Critically Endangered (IUCN 2023)
- Lifespan
- Up to about 60 years (researchers' estimate)
Habitat & range
The South China giant salamander comes from the Pearl River basin and the Nanling Mountains of southern China. Amphibian Species of the World lists eastern Yunnan, southern Guizhou, northern Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong, but notes that the details of its range are poorly understood. Like other Chinese giant salamanders, it lives its whole life in water, in rocky mountain streams and rivers, sheltering in underwater caves and crevices. Giant salamanders cannot cross land, so populations in separate river systems were cut off from each other. A 2019 study used DNA from museum specimens, some collected more than 100 years ago, and found that the Pearl River lineage split from the Yangtze lineage around the Pliocene–Pleistocene, when uplift of the Tibetan Plateau reshaped southern China. The authors revived the name Andrias sligoi for it, first given in 1924.
Diet & hunting
Almost nothing has been recorded about wild South China giant salamanders, so what is known comes from their close relatives. Chinese giant salamanders are nocturnal ambush predators. They eat crabs, frogs, fish, insects, water shrews and even other giant salamanders, and catch prey by suddenly opening the mouth to suck it in. Their eyes are tiny and see poorly. Instead, they sense vibrations in the water with sensory nodes along the head and body.
Body & behaviour
Researchers in Japan examined four South China giant salamanders, the first living ones studied by scientists since the species was named. All had a robust body, a wide, flat head with small bumps (tubercles), smooth skin and thick, well-developed skin folds along the flanks. Their colouring was strongly contrasting dark and pale brown, and one individual was completely black. Outwardly they looked very much like the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus). Giant salamanders take in oxygen through their skin, and the wrinkled folds add surface area. In the Chinese giant salamander, males move into underwater dens in August, push out sand and gravel to clean them, and then guard the eggs, which hatch after 40 to 60 days.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List classifies Andrias sligoi as Critically Endangered (2023 assessment). Between 2013 and 2016, a survey of 97 sites in 16 Chinese provinces found giant salamanders critically depleted or gone in every surveyed area, with widespread poaching for the luxury food trade. Farming adds to the danger. Farms have exchanged salamanders between distant regions, and thousands of farm-bred young have been released into rivers, which can mix lineages that evolved apart. Japanese researchers who found living South China giant salamanders in Japan wrote in 2024 that it appears too late to save the species in the wild.
Fun facts about South China Giant Salamander
- The first known South China giant salamander measured 99 cm when it reached London Zoo in 1923. In Hong Kong it had lived in a small basin and was fed live tadpoles, with raw beef when tadpoles ran short.
- One male, now at Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park in Japan, grew from 30.5 cm and 114 g in 1986 to 137.5 cm and 23.4 kg by 2021.
- In 1972, about 800 Chinese giant salamanders, including this species, were imported into ponds at a private house in Okayama, Japan. About 300 died within a year.
- Its name was first proposed in 1924, then dropped for decades when it was lumped with the Chinese giant salamander, until DNA from museum specimens confirmed it in 2019.
South China Giant Salamander vs Chinese Giant Salamander
The South China giant salamander wins on size, but farm mixing is the real threat to both.
These two were treated as one species until 2019, and in the wild they lived in different river systems: the South China giant salamander in the Pearl River region, the Chinese giant salamander in the northern Yangtze and Sichuan. Outwardly they look almost the same. On size, the South China giant salamander has the edge. The biggest giant salamander ever reported, about 1.8 m long, came from Guizhou, and recent samples from Guizhou belong to the South China lineage. Chinese giant salamanders are territorial, and fights between them often cause injury or death, so a clash over a den would favour the bigger animal. Today the two mostly meet because of people. Farms have moved salamanders between distant regions and released farm-bred young into rivers, which mixes lineages that evolved apart. That threatens both species more than any fight.
Read more about Chinese Giant Salamander.
Common questions about South China Giant Salamander
Is the South China giant salamander the largest amphibian in the world?
Possibly. The largest giant salamander ever reported, about 1.8 m long, was caught near Guiyang, Guizhou, in the early 1920s. No DNA survives from that animal, but recent Guizhou samples belong to the South China lineage, so it was probably Andrias sligoi rather than the Chinese giant salamander (Turvey et al. 2019). The largest living one measured recently, a male in Hiroshima, was 1.375 m and 23.4 kg (Nishikawa et al. 2024).
How is the South China giant salamander different from the Chinese giant salamander?
Mainly in its DNA and its river system. Museum-specimen DNA showed that southern China's Pearl River lineage is a separate species from Andrias davidianus of the northern Yangtze and Sichuan (Turvey et al. 2019). By eye they are hard to tell apart: living A. sligoi in Japan looked very like the Chinese and Jiangxi giant salamanders (Nishikawa et al. 2024). Our Journal piece explains the split.
Are there any South China giant salamanders left?
Very few are known. The IUCN lists the species as Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List 2023), and it is unclear whether any wild population survives. A 2024 genetic screening in Japan found four: two living males, at Tokyo's Sunshine Aquarium and Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park, plus two that had died. Both males are near the end of their estimated lifespan of about 60 years (Nishikawa et al. 2024).
Why is the South China giant salamander called Andrias sligoi?
It honours the Marquess of Sligo, who secured the first known specimen for London Zoo. That salamander was found in the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens in April 1920, washed out by a burst drain after a violent storm. Edward G. Boulenger named it Megalobatrachus sligoi in 1924 (Boulenger 1924). It lived at the zoo for about 20 years, and in 2019 the preserved animal was used to revive the name as Andrias sligoi (ZSL).
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