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Imminent extinction in the wild of the world's largest amphibian

Abstract:

Species with large geographic ranges are considered resilient to global decline [1]. However, human pressures on biodiversity affect increasingly large areas, in particular across Asia, where market forces drive overexploitation of species [2]. Range-wide threat assessments are often costly and thus extrapolated from non-representative local studies [3]. The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), the world's largest amphibian, is thought to occur across much of China, but populations are harvested for farming as luxury food [4]. Between 2013 and 2016, we conducted field surveys and interviews in possibly the largest wildlife survey conducted in China. This extensive effort revealed that populations of this once-widespread species are now critically depleted or extirpated across all surveyed areas of their range, and illegal poaching is widespread. Turvey et al. reveal that the once-widespread Chinese giant salamander, the world's largest amphibian, is critically depleted or extirpated across all surveyed areas of its range due to poaching for the luxury food market.