Paramesotriton deloustali -- revisited

[Tim Johnson]

(This is a continuation of the archived thread found at: http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/43.html)

I recently came across a very informative report about this species, which can be found at:

http://www.undp.org.vn/projects/parc/docs/bn25.pdf

Some more pictures are linked from this site:

http://www.undp.org.vn/projects/parc/summaries/bn25.htm

These sites seem to be up and down (they weren't accessible this morning), so in case they disappear altogether, here are some of the pics in the report:


(male)


(female)

(I don't know about the second photo but the first is credited to Nguyen Quang Truong)

[Tim Johnson]

From the same report:

[Tim Johnson]

And here are those from the article "Tam Dao -- Sanctuary Under Seige" in the June 1999 issue of National Geographic (vol.195, No. 6):





(photographs by Mark W. Moffett)

Tim, thanks a lot for hunting down all of this info.

Ralf

[Tim Johnson]

Sure thing, Ralf. Shame I spent two whole years in Hanoi without ever making a trip to Tam Dao. It's only 32 miles away! I could've spent say every other weekend there surrounded by these awesome critters Come to think of it, I was even in Hanoi a few months ago. If I'd only known! Ah well, next time...

By the way, I'm now pretty much without a doubt that it was deloustali that was being sold in shops here in Japan some time back. Don't know how they got here from northern Vietnam though. Maybe via Hainan, which might explain why they were being sold as "Hainan" warties.

A couple years ago, myself and some friends acquired identical animals here in the states. Perhaps P. deloustali ranges further up into southern China.

[Tim Johnson]

I wouldn't doubt that, but I've surmised that they are smuggled from Vietnam to China. The animal trade at the border is pretty huge, or at least it used to be when I lived in Hanoi. Here is a report that suggests that salamanders are among the animals being smuggled out:

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2...Miscellany.htm

The caption under the picture mentions salamanders.