Giant Chinese salamander speeding toward extinction: study

The world's largest amphibians, giant Chinese salamanders, were once thought to be widespread but now face imminent extinction due to illegal poaching and hunting as a luxury food, researchers said today.

"The overexploitation of these incredible animals for human consumption has had a catastrophic effect on their numbers in the wild over an amazingly short time span," said co-author Samuel Turvey, a researcher at the Zoological Society of London.

"Unless coordinated conservation measures are put in place as a matter of urgency, the future of the world's largest amphibian is in serious jeopardy."
"The status of wild populations may be even worse than our data suggest. Releases had occurred shortly before surveys at two sites where we detected individuals."