Japanese Giant Salamander

The Japanese giant salamander is a species of fully aquatic giant salamander endemic to Japan, occurring across the western portion of the main island of Honshu, with smaller populations on Shikoku and in northern Kyushu. Reaching a length of up to 5 feet, it is the third-largest salamander in the world, surpassed only by the very similar and closely related Chinese giant salamander and South China giant salamander. It was first catalogued by Europeans in the 1820s when the resident physician of Dejima Island in Nagasaki, Philipp Franz von Siebold, captured an individual and shipped it back to Leiden in the Netherlands, and the species was designated a special natural monument in 1951 and is protected by Japan's central government.