Andrias stats

so, how what IS the CB status of the larger Andrias species? It seems like enticing something like A. japonicus to breed in captivity would be, at the very least, a neat trick.

I e-mailed someone with a similar question awhile back, whom I had located on this website - hellbenders.sanwalddesigns.com

This is his reply to me:" Yes, Japanese giant salamanders can be bred in captivity. There is actually a zoo in Japan that is having a lot of success breeding these salamanders. The problem though, is that the streams they came from in the first place are in pretty bad shape. So now they just have a lot of captive bred giant salamanders, but most of the natural habitat is gone. One thing about captive breeding is that people will no longer need to take giant salamanders from the wild if they want to keep one in a zoo, etc. This used to be a big problem, so hopefully captive breeding will reduce the loss of populations by overcollection."
I did not ask about the Chinese species, or the name of the zoo in Japan. And a new question I now have is: What will happen to the SURPLUS offspring produced by the captive breeding effort, if they cannot be re-introduced?}

It's the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima, which claims to have been the first to breed this species in captivity in 1979, and to have been successfully breeding it for the subsequent 16 years. The Dutch also claim to be the first:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/11230.html

I thought this article was interesting:
http://www.rnw.nl/science/html/salamanders010828.html
I found reference to A.davidianus breeding programs in North America (Cincinnati Zoo), and Germany.
Proof that at least there is an effort underway.

Thanks for that link Megan!

As for what the Asa Zoo does with the surplus offspring, it seems they give or trade some away to other zoos. The eight sent to the San Antonio Zoo back in 1999, for instance, were all juvies of the same age:

http://www.newts.org/~newtsweek/html/leapin__lizards___big_salamanders_are_zoo_s_newest.html

And the five received by Detroit's zoo in 2000 were from Asa, all captive bred there in 1989:

http://detroitzoo.org/dzs/2000/nov2000/salamander.html

I noticed that the plaque on display at the Detroit zoo says the Asa Zoo "has produced thousands of young for release into the natural habitat".

If there are any left over after the releases, donations, trades, and setting aside of breeding stock, I'd also be interested in knowing what they do with them and will ask about it next chance I get

thanks for the info.

Hmm...I wonder if I could replace my roommate's stuff in his room with a large enclosure...you know, just in case any local zoos had to get some of these beautiful creatures off their hands...

*puts the hose down the basement stairs* think this will be a big enough enclosure?

Tim, you beat me to the post about the Detroit Zoo.

I'm quite curious about the breeding going on in Düsseldorf, as I was under the impression there wasnt any efforts going on with that individual. BTW: here's a fuzzy pic of him.

I also stumbled across an A. japonicus in Stuttgart at the Wilhelma Zoo. I didn't know he was there. I walked down the steps and BAM! giant salamander in my face!

seems like you would need something upwards of 10 square meters to house a beasty like that

Reopening the post after the elapse of more than two years, but just wanted to amend something. The plaque on display at the Detroit zoo appears to be WRONG as I have since heard from an impeccable source that NONE of the animals bred at the Asa Zoo are released into the natural habitat, nor have they been in the past.

So let the record stand corrected ...at least pending any further info to the contrary...