The giant salamander is a tailed amphibian belonging to the genus Andrias. The body is large and flat, with a total length of 582 ~ 834 mm, a head length of 31 ~ 585 mm, and a maximum individual length of more than 2 cm. Included in the "Key Protected Wild Animals in China"-Grade II.

The adult giant salamanders usually inhabit caves and stone caves in the deep pools of streams and rivers below 1m above sea level, especially in the caves above and below the beach mouth, where the entrance is not big and there is only one entrance. The depth of the hole is different, and the hole is spacious and flat.

I often lie in caves during the day and seldom go out for activities. In summer and autumn, I also have the habit of going ashore for food or sunbathing during the day. Giant salamanders usually go out at night and return in the morning, and live in a cave.

Predation is mainly carried out at night, often waiting among the rocks at the beach mouth. When hunting animals pass by, they suddenly open their mouths to prey. The giant salamander is suitable to inhabit the water with the water temperature of 3 ~ 23℃, and the individual is much larger and lives in deep water, while the small and medium-sized individuals are mostly in shallow water.

Most of the adult giant salamanders are solitary, and the young giant salamanders are often clustered in rocky crevices, and the optimum water temperature for their life is 1 ~ 2℃. The giant salamander often puts its head into the water to breathe, and its skin is also an important organ for gas exchange. In the water with high oxygen content, the giant salamander can lie on the bottom of the water for a long time without coming out to breathe.

it is mainly distributed in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi in China.

The giant salamander has poor eyesight. It mainly senses external information through smell and touch. It can also sense the vibration in the water through warts on its skin, so as to catch fish, shrimp and insects in the water. Chinese giant salamander occupies the top position of the food chain in its ecosystem and is an important part of the biological chain.

Chinese giant salamander has slightly different food sources in different waters. They eat a lot, mainly preying on fish, crustaceans, amphibians and small arthropods in the water. In addition, a small amount of plant components are also found in the stomach of giant salamander. Living in the habitat of the giant salamander in the Yangtze River valley, there are white turtles, wide-lipped fish, maw fish and other fish, which provide a wide range of prey for the giant salamander.

Due to the high economic value of giant salamanders, people's overfishing is becoming more and more serious. In addition, rivers are polluted and the ecological environment is destroyed, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of giant salamanders, and the resources in many places are exhausted and even endangered.