Abstract
AbstractOver recent decades, Chinese giant salamanders Andrias spp. have declined dramatically across much of their range. Overexploitation and habitat degradation have been widely cited as the cause of these declines. To investigate the relative contribution of each of these factors in driving the declines, we carried out standardized ecological and questionnaire surveys at 98 sites across the range of giant salamanders in China. We did not find any statistically significant differences between water parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity, alkalinity, hardness and flow rate) recorded at sites where giant salamanders were detected by survey teams and/or had been recently seen by local respondents, and sites where they were not detected and/or from which they had recently been extirpated. Additionally, we found direct and indirect evidence that the extraction of giant salamanders from the wild is ongoing, including within protected areas. Our results support the hypothesis that the decline of giant salamanders across China has been primarily driven by overexploitation. Data on water parameters may be informative for the establishment of conservation breeding programmes, an initiative recommended for the conservation of these species.
Highlights
Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class, with % of assessed species in danger of extinction (IUCN, )
Some amphibian species have disappeared from intact or suitable habitats (Daszak et al, ; Hirschfeld et al, ), with such declines usually having been mediated by disease (Skerratt et al, ; Stegen et al, ) or related to overexploitation (Stuart et al, ; Phimmachak et al, )
The range-wide decline of giant salamanders across China has been attributed to overexploitation for the luxury food market (Liang et al, ; Wang et al, ; Feng et al, ; Dai et al, ; Cunningham et al, ; Turvey et al, ), and to habitat loss and
Summary
Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class, with % of assessed species in danger of extinction (IUCN, ). The Chinese giant salamander is a Critically Endangered aquatic cryptobranchid salamander It has been identified as a global priority for conservation based on the evolutionary distinctiveness of its so-called living fossil lineage (Gumbs et al, ), and was designated as a State protected animal in China in , with this national legislation making hunting illegal (Liang et al, ). It has traditionally been interpreted as the single geographically wide-ranging species Andrias davidianus, distributed across multiple montane ecoregions and river basins (Yangtze, Yellow, Pearl, and south-east river drainages), but has recently been shown to constitute a complex of at least three species, including the South China giant salamander A. sligoi and other undescribed taxa (Yan et al, ; Liang et al, ; Turvey et al, ). The range-wide decline of giant salamanders across China has been attributed to overexploitation for the luxury food market (Liang et al, ; Wang et al, ; Feng et al, ; Dai et al, ; Cunningham et al, ; Turvey et al, ), and to habitat loss and
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
