Giant Salamanders and What They Eat

Members of the Cryptobranchidae family of salamanders are more commonly known as giant salamanders. This family consists of two genera and three species of salamander, two native to Asia, with the third found in the U.S. Giant salamanders are the largest amphibians in the world and are also fully aquatic.

  1. Physical Description

    • Giant salamanders all have similar body shapes, which are flattened and broad with short legs. Their heads are also generally flattened with round muzzles and large mouths. The Chinese giant salamander grows to almost 6 feet in length and is the largest of the three. The Japanese giant salamander, which grows to almost 5 feet, is the next largest. The hellbender is small compared to its cousins and grows to just around 2 feet in length.

    Habitat and Range

    • The Chinese variety of giant salamander, as its name suggests, is found in China, living in freshwater streams and lakes generally found in forested areas. The Japanese variety is only found on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu in the same kind of habitat as the Chinese giant salamander. They both favor fast-moving streams as the movement helps them absorb oxygen from the water. The hellbender is native to the U.S. and ranges from the East Coast westward to Missouri and Ohio. It also prefers the same kind of habitat as its Asian cousins.

    Diet

    • The Asian giant salamanders are both capable of eating large prey by basically sucking in their food and swallowing it whole. Their prey consists almost entirely of aquatic animals such as various fish, amphibians and insects. They also prey upon small mammals that stray into the water. The Asian salamanders have numerous sharp teeth that are also able to grip prey and feed off of dead animals that may be in the water. The hellbender, the smaller salamander, feeds on smaller prey but does so in the same manner as the Asian varieties. Crustaceans, insects, fish and worms are the most common prey items. Cannibalism also occurs in all three species.

    Life Cycle

    • Giant salamanders all reproduce in the same way, with the males securing a spawning site in which several females lay strings of eggs. The male fertilizes these eggs externally and guards them from other males and predators until they hatch out. Smaller males can often be killed and eaten if they try to invade these nesting sites. All three species produce around 500 eggs per female during each season. Asian salamanders can live for more than 50 years while the smaller American hellbender can live up to 29 years.