In search of lost worlds
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Heaven Bridge, a representative site in Zhangjiajie. Photo: Jonathon Booth |
Lurking in a few fast-flowing streams amid the unique topography of South-central China, there lives a creature that appears to be from a bygone era. A long, flattened tail, smooth, loose skin and a broad, rounded-head, bearing strong jaws that snap at anything in its path - this beast even yells out an occasional cry. It would seem like this being could befit a character profile from Conan Doyle's The Lost World. Yet this is no dinosaur and it is not fiction. Even so, has this special setting lost one of its most unusual inhabitants for good?
Unless you are Chinese or an enthusiast of rock formations, you will probably be unfamiliar with the name Zhangjiajie. Often overshadowed by the limestone peaks that heave up gracefully around Guilin, Zhangjiajie, in Hunan Province, offers a more angular approach. Here, spread across a section of ancient seafloor, some 250 slender yet jagged sandstone pinnacles soar from the ground, some to almost 1,000 meters, creating a landscape found nowhere else. These constructions amaze and inspire, and not solely because of geology.
Upon such sword-like protrusions, and in the valleys connecting them, sprout an array of plants and trees that provide a vivid spectrum of green. Even the tiny ledge-like surfaces that flank these sedimentary columns bear just enough space for lightly crowned pines to entwine their gnarled roots. And where there are plants, there are animals, including some of the world's rarest; the Chinese giant salamander, the world's largest amphibian, is one of these inhabitants.
Crawling across the submerged cobbles and stones that lie within Zhangjiajie's fast-flowing streams, the giant salamander, Andrias davidianus, manoeuvres with an ungainly clamber. Or does it?
Unique biology
The salamander belongs to the family Cryptobranchidae, which also includes its North American cousin, the hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, and its closer relative, the Japanese giant salamander, Andrias japonicus.
Of the three species, it is the Chinese clan that attains the greatest size; one individual was recorded at 1.8 meters' long. Like all salamanders, the Chinese giant has a long body and flattened, strap-like tail. These animals have smooth skin that is ruffled along either flank to increase its surface area, because, although the salamander possesses lungs, it can also obtain oxygen via diffusion through its skin. Probably the most striking trait of this nocturnal and carnivorous creature is its head, which is flat and somewhat semicircular in shape to accommodate its large, rounded jaws. Upon its head are two eyes, but no eyelids, and its body is gray-brown, assisting its camouflage. In late summer, the females secrete a rope of about 500 eggs, which the male showers in sperm, externally. The adults protect the developing eggs until they hatch into three-centimeter long tadpole-like juveniles.
For years, I have had an interest in the living world and, in particular, the more unusual individuals that compile our flora and fauna. So when the opportunity arose to venture to Zhangjiajie, the possibility of viewing a wild giant salamander became highly exciting, even though the odds of sighting one were against me. River pollution, habitat destruction and over-collection have pushed these ancient creatures to a small number indeed.
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