<i>Hynobius keyserlingi</i> (siberian salamander)

Has anybody on this site kept these animals. I hear that they have the largest rang of any amphibian, from the Urals on the west to the pacific on the east, from the caspian sea, kazak steppes, and gobi desert on the south to the arctic ocean in the north. I've also heard that they can do lots of cool things like survive being frozen solid because they have anti freeze in their blood. I have a book that says in the wild eggs take about eight weeks to hatch but in warmer captivity temperatures they only take three. Does anybody have pictures of these animals?

Yep, here's on shot :http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=1111+1111+1111+0985

THey have been breeding in FRance this year, but there was only one fertilised egg. As a first try out this is ont too bad. With hopes for the following year.

They've obviously changed its genus since the book I got the info from was published. Did the egg make it to morphing, and does the breeding facility give them the same cold temperatures that they would encounter in the wild.

THe egg became a larvae but the rasing didn't succeed. The person had aksed my opinion in how to install his setup for the eggs and I gave him the tips on the introduction of the branches in the tank like I do with my hynobius. He then introduced a half tree and indeed the eggs were set off on them. So the correct substrate is needed. He hopes that next year he may get the same results and gets a better shot at it.

Benjamin, yeah, the family is Hynobiidae but the genus is not Hynobius but Salamandrella, by most accounts anyway
(its status as a distinct genus is doubted by some).

I don't know if it has the broadest range of any amphibian, but it has the widest distribution of any tailed amphibian, being found in northeast China, on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, to the immediate north on the large Russian island of Sakhalin, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, and from Siberia to the Ural mountains. Also in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and on the Korean Peninsula, according to one of my books. In Japan, its range is really tiny. It's confined to the Kushiro Marshland of eastern Hokkaido



I had a visitor from Hokkaido today who showed me this juvenile:

One might add that the estimated distribution area is about 12 million square kilometers. There are even relict populations of this species west of the Ural in Europe with the most western known occurrence in the district of Archangelsk.

Reference: KUZMIN, SERGIUS L.: Die Amphibien Rußlands und angrenzender Gebiete
Westarp Wissenschaften Magdeburg
Spektrum Akademischer Verlag 1995
Die Neue Brehm Bücherei Bd. 627
274 pages (in German)

ISBN 3-89432-457-0

Thanks Ralf. To take it a step or two further, here's what the Global Amphibian Assessment has to say about Salamandrella keyserlingii (which should be spelled with two i's at the end )

Scientific Name: Salamandrella keyserlingii
Authority: Dybowski, 1870
English Common Names: Siberian Newt, Siberian Salamander
Other Common Names: Kitasanshouo (Japanese), Sibirskii Uglozub (Russian)
Class Order Family Genus: Amphibia Caudata Hynobiidae Salamandrella
Red List Category: Least Concern (LC)
Red List Category Rationale: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, tolerance of a broad range of habitats, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.
Population Trend: Decreasing
Notes on Red List Status: This species is considered to be Near Threatened in Japan.
Geographic Range Comments: This species ranges from the north of European Russia (Arkhangelskaya Province) through the Polar Urals and Siberia to Chukotka Peninsula, then southwards along the Pacific coast to northeastern and central China (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoling, Neimongo and Henan Provinces), northern Democratic People's Republic of Korea, central Mongolia, southern Siberia, and through northern Kazakhstan to Nizhegorodskaya Province in European Russia. The species is also present in Kushiro marshland in Hokkaido, Japan, and the disputed island of Kunashiri.
Distribution Status: Native China; Japan; Kazakhstan; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Mongolia; Russian Federation
Population: In general this species is common over its wide range. There are some localised declines in parts of its range, in Mongolia (the southern margin of the species' range), there are small isolated populations, some of which are declining and are considered to be threatened.
Habitat and Ecology: It is found in wet coniferous, mixed, deciduous forests in the taiga zone and riparian groves in tundra and forest steppe. In forests, it is mostly found in glades and along the edges of woods not far from stagnant or semi-flowing waters. It is more rarely found in meadows, willow stands, fields, suburban and urban areas. In the Polar Urals and the north of West Siberia, the species is found on the shores of small lakes surrounded with swamps in shrubby and sedge-shrubby tundras. In the forest steppe region it is found in marshes in meadows, meadow steppes and small-leafed forests. The species breeds in ditches, pools and slow-flowing streams.
Major Threats: There are no major threats to this species. The species is locally threatened by desiccation of wetlands, loss of terrestrial habitat, pollution and increased urbanisation.
Conservation Measures: The species is present in many protected areas. It is listed in the Red Data Books of the Middle Urals (Perm and Sverdlovsk provinces of Russia) and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous County (Russia), Altaiskii Region (Russia), as well as the Red Data Book of Mongolia. The species is protected in Heilongjiang Province, China and is designated a natural monument by Kushiro City and Shibecha Town, Japan.

SOURCE: IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2004. Global Amphibian Assessment. <www.globalamphibians.org>. Accessed on 15 November 2004.

Here's the range map shown in the same report:



Copyright: 2004 IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe

"Reproduction of charts and figures for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holders."

And a nice bibliography from the same source :

Bannikov, A.G., Darevsky, I.S., Ishchenko, V.G., Rustamov, A.K. and Szczerbak, N.N. 1977. Opredelitel Zemnovodnykh i Presmykayushchikhsya Fauny SSSR [Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of the USSR Fauna]. Prosvechshenie. Moscow.

Emelianov, A.A. 1944. Amfibii i Reptilii Sovetskogo Dalnego Vostoka [Amphibians and Reptiles of the Soviet Far East] (D.Sc.Diss.). Vladivostok.

Fei, L., Ye, C.-Y., Huang, Y.-A. and Liu, M.-Y. 1999. Atlas of Amphibians of China. Henan Science and Technical Press. Zhengzhou.

Garanin, V.I. 2000. The distribution of amphibians in the Volga-Kama region. Advances in Amphibian Research in the former Soviet Union. 5:79-132.

Kuzmin, S.L. 1995. Die Amphibien Russlands und Angrenzender Gebiete. Westarp - Spektrum. Magdeburg - Heidelberg.

Kuzmin, S.L. 1996. Threatened amphibians in the former Soviet Union: the current situation and the main threats. Oryx. 30:24-30.

Kuzmin, S.L. 1999. The Amphibians of the Former Soviet Union. Pensoft. Sofia-Moscow.

Kuzmin, S.L. Dodd Jr, C.K. and Pikulik, M.M.,editor. 1995. Amphibian Populations in the Commonwealth of Independent States: Current Status and Declines. Pensoft. Moscow.

Kuzmin, S.L., Borkin, L.J., Vorobyeva, E.I., Darevsky, I.S., Munkhbayar, Kh. and Semenov, D.V. 1988. Amphibians and Reptiles of Mongolian People's Republic: General Problems. Amphibians. Nauka. Moscow.

MacKinnon, J., Meng, S., Cheung, C., Carey, G., Zhu, X. and Melville, D. 1996. A Biodiversity Review of China. World Wide Fund for Nature International. Hong Kong.

Maslova, I.V. 2001. Sravnitelnaya Kharakteristika Biologii Zemnovodnykh Yuzhnogo Primorya [Comparative Characterization of the Biology of Amphibians in the Southern Primorye]. PhD Dissertation. Vladivostok.

Matsui, M. 2000. Siberian salamander. Threatened Wildlife of Japan - Red Data Book, 2nd Edition: Reptilia/Amphibia. Environment Agency,editor. Japan Wildlife Research Center. Tokyo.

Munkhbayar, Kh. 1976. Mongol Orny Khoer Nutagtan, Khevleer Yavagchid [Amphibians and Reptiles of Mongolia]. Ministry of Education. Ulaanbaatar.

Pestov, M. and Anufriev, V. 2001. The Frog Princess and Other Projects. FrogLog. 46.

Sengoku, S., Hikida, T., Matsui, M. and Nakaya, K. 1996. The Encyclopedia of Animals in Japan. Volume 5. Amphibians, Reptiles, Chondrichthyes. Heibonsha Limited. Tokyo.

Szyndlar, Z. 1984. A description of a small collection of amphibians and reptiles from the People's Democratic Republic of Korea with notes on the distribution of the herpetofauna in that country. Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia. 27(1):1-18.

Terbish, Kh. and Munkhbayar, Kh. 1992. New records of amphibians and reptiles in Mongolia. 2. Intern. Symp. Erforsch. Biol. Res. In der Mongolie: Thesen. 189-190. Halle-Wittenberg - Ulan-Bator.

Terbish, Kh. and Munkhbayar, Kh. 1998. The distribution of amphibian and reptiles in the protected areas of Mongolia. Third Asian Herpetol. Meeting: Abstracts. 39. Almaty.

Thorn, R. 1968. Les Salamandres d'Europe, d'Asia, et d'Afrique du Nord. 376 pp. Éditions Paul Lechevalier. Paris.

Vorobyeva, E.I.,editor. 1994. The Siberian Newt (Salamandrella keyserlingii Dybowski, 1870): Zoogeography, Systematics, Morphology. Nauka. Moscow.

Zhao, E.-M. 1998. China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals - Amphibia. Science Press. Beijing.

Notice the tiny dot in central china. That's strange how it's so isolated.

Here's what Amphibia Web at the University of Berkeley has to say about the freezing aspect that you mentioned:

"Salamandrella keyserlingii is a unique amphibian in its freeze-tolerance: adults are able to survive freezing to -35 - -40oC and can move at +0.5- +1.0oC. The spawn can survive short-term freezing in the ice. Adults can survive in a frozen state for a very long time. Sometimes frozen salamanders, found in the permafrost at a depth of 4-14 m, "revive" after melting. About ten such instances are known from Siberia. Hibernation starts in September-October and ends in most places from April to the beginning of May. The total duration of overwintering is not less than ca. 45% of the year. It increases northwards to about 75% of year. The newt hibernates in rotten trees, under logs, snags, in holes, etc., usually in groups."

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/amphib_query?table=amphib&where-genus=Salamandrella&where-species=keyserlingii

Children, please do not try this at home as it might seriously hurt your newt.

Hehe, I guess one could conceivably take a 10-year break from the hobby, and then restart in 2014 with the same animals

I wonder how long "a very long time" referred to above actually is. I mean, how long would it take to end up 14 meters deep in the permafrost? Tens or even hundreds of years?! Taxonomists would probably have a field day

The population may increase a bit if global warming keeps going...!
Chris

Tim,
According to Kuzmin. (Amphibians of the former Soviet Union) "The age of one such specimen excavated from the perma-frost, from a depth of 11 metres was determined at 90 + or - 15 years."

That's incredible! If only mastodons were as lucky...

And speaking of incredible, that's a pretty incredible book. I saw a copy of it once, but didn't purchase it as it had mostly Triturus info.

There is an article in the 3rd Qtr. 1998, edition of Cryonics called From Cryobiology From Anabiosis (by Mikhail Soloviev) that says S. keyserlingii tolerates -40 and "can be revived after several years in permafrost...Data based on radiocarbon dating suggests revival even after 90 years, which could furnish an argument for permafrost burials."

"The general explanation for freezing tolerance in animals appears to be the following: (1) Extracellular ice-nucleating proteins provide many centers for ice formation. (2) The extracellular space also includes antifreezing proteins and other freeze-resisting substances (e.g. glycerol), which inhibit the growth of ice crystals. Jointly (1) and (2) provide the formation of many tiny, nondamaging crystals that inhibit further crystallization. (3) Certain intracellular substances like trehalose (a sugar) and proline (an amino acid), increase the flexibility of cell membranes. This provides protection against the bending and stressing that occurs when the cell loses its water during freezing and its volume decreases
significantly. (4) Other intracellular substances, such as glycerol, sorbitol (an alcohol), and glucose, substitute for water that leaves the cell during freezing. This maintains a minimal cell volume during freezing and stabilizes the intracellular surroundings. Mechanisms providing freezing tolerance(including synthesis of the above substances) are launched in the organism by seasonal changes (e.g. the length of daylight) or by decreasing the body temperature below a certain limit."

It further says the main cryoprotective substance of S. keyserlingii is glycerol.

source: http://www.alcor.org/cryonics/cryonics1998-3.pdf

There is said to be a reference to S. keyserlingii in the following article:

Frozen and Alive
Scientific American, December 1990
Kenneth B. Storey and Janet M. Storey