The Human-Sized Salamander That Smells Like Pepper

Saw an episode of River Monsters about this amazing creature. Amazing and beautiful!!

Wo thats cool sir! SNF
Btw is there any health news from man that hug the monster? Haha

reply to post by Grimpachi


with fukushima & global warming, pretty soon life will be imitating art and that thing will transform into Godzilla

reply to post by Grimpachi


Its straight out of resident evil.

reply to post by Grimpachi


interesting find always wondering what sits deep in the fresh water composites below the mud/sand...

AbleEndangered
Living Dinosaur!!

I wonder why the creature isn't smarter after millions of years?...

It survives for millions of years while most other species die out and you ask
"why isn't it smarter"?
It is smart enough to live this long and individuals may live to be 70-80 years old.
In the US we have salamanders that are born in water, move out and live on land for a year, then move back to being entirely aquatic. How's that for taking advantage of your environment? I found one during a prolonged drought we had by following it's tracks to a lump of mud left in the middle of a dried up puddle. To beat the heat and avoid dying out salamanders can aestivate where they hollow out a spot in the mud, spread a slime around them to form a shell and wait for months until the next rain liberates them from the mud prison.

I'd say their intelligence serves them just fine.
They are beautiful animals and come in an incredible variety of colors much like frogs.
I love these creatures though the big ones I'll admit are a tad ugly.

A frog writes a thread about a salamander. This place never ceases to amaze me.

I wish the Chinese would stop eating these things. But when have the Chinese ever cared about protected status of animals?

The Japanese giant salamander is known as Sanshouuo in Japan, which literally means pepper fish.

I'm a little dubious on the mud-puppy thing. I don't want to doubt you, as I've seen many creatures not meant to exist in my time and travels, but the difference between 14" and 6' is quite significant. That said, I'm a very open guy, and would love to hear more or see some evidence/similar stories

the owlbear

Grimpachi
[SNIP]

In the photo...just WHERE is that man's HAND going?
I see knuckles and that's about it...
Creeeeeeepyyyy!!!!!
I think I'll print out an 8x10 of it and hang it in my house...tell everyone that's Uncle Albert...they don't let him touch big salamanders anymore...

edit on 25-10-2013 by Gemwolf because: Removed large quote

Not to ruin this fabulous mystery but, if you look closely, you'll see a foot sticking out near his hand. It appears that the gentleman is grabbing the salamander by the leg and his fingers are wrapped around it. It's definitely a little bizarre at first glance though!

This shows that something that is normally small in one country can be insanely huge in others. What comes to mind are the stories of giant spiders. Hopefully that is myth but you never know (nor do I really want to know ).

That is way huge and hopefully not near Fukushima. Last thing we need is for one of those to turn into a real life Godzilla!

If it smells like pepper I wonder what is tastes like?
Anyone tried it?

AbleEndangered
Living Dinosaur!!

I wonder why the creature isn't smarter after millions of years?...

Nothing wants or is large enough to eat it, or maybe predators died out - no need for further evolution there.

Nothing it eats has really changed, like fish. So no need for further evolution there.

Rivers and rocks are still the same after 20 million years. Again, no need for any evolution.


So it's got it niche - sitting at the river bed snaffling anything that drifts down too far.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Cool thread, I hope this does not go extinct like so many other animal's out there, could not help but laugh as the snot otter joke, they used to call be double barrelled snot gun.

Wowww. That is SO awesome. Thank you for posting this!

I am so fascinated by creatures that at least allegedly haven't changed much since the dawn of time. As well as by creatures that live a long time -- 70-80 years?!

In my head I imagine that on the surface we think they are lizardyfishythings but on some psychic level they meet weekly to decide the fate of our planet and its geology for the next week. :-)

reply to post by stormcell

stormcell

AbleEndangered
Living Dinosaur!!

I wonder why the creature isn't smarter after millions of years?...

Nothing wants or is large enough to eat it, or maybe predators died out - no need for further evolution there.

Nothing it eats has really changed, like fish. So no need for further evolution there.

Rivers and rocks are still the same after 20 million years. Again, no need for any evolution.


So it's got it niche - sitting at the river bed snaffling anything that drifts down too far.

Whatever did it do during the Ice Age??

Just hid for a while huh?



If that thing survives another 20 Million years it will look like this:

dino.wikia.com/wiki/Dinosauroid
dino.wikia.com...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating
en.wikipedia.org...

In 2012, it was argued that there is an error in the way that the most-commonly-used calibration programs calculate calibrated radiocarbon ages.[79] As yet, no correction for this error has been implemented. The inaccuracy in the calibrated ages is typically small, but sometimes can be large (particularly in Bayesian analyses).

reply to post by AbleEndangered

Whatever did it do during the Ice Age??

Just hid for a while huh?

Japan has many volcanic hot springs. Many species have survived the winters taking advantage of them even these guys.
I am pretty sure other species throughout history have as well.

reply to post by Grimpachi

Grimpachi
reply to post by AbleEndangered

 

Whatever did it do during the Ice Age??

Just hid for a while huh?

Japan has many volcanic hot springs. Many species have survived the winters taking advantage of them even these guys.

I am pretty sure other species throughout history have as well.

That's a long winter....

What if the Salamander is from somewhere else??

Japan is an Island...

reply to post by AbleEndangered


And the salamanders are in Japan. Sooo why are you asking if they are from somewhere else?

You do realize hot springs feed streams don’t you?

Have you ever fished near a power plant? Fish and other animals are drawn to them for warm waters down here the Manitee’s stay by them during the winter. Same principle only in Japan it is volcanic.

During Ice ages those springs probably had their own echo systems.

reply to post by Grimpachi

Grimpachi
reply to post by AbleEndangered

 

And the salamanders are in Japan. Sooo why are you asking if they are from somewhere else?

You do realize hot springs feed streams don’t you?

Have you ever fished near a power plant? Fish and other animals are drawn to them for warm waters down here the Manitee’s stay by them during the winter. Same principle only in Japan it is volcanic.

During Ice ages those springs probably had their own echo systems.

So, zero possibility the Salamander migrated up the Pacific Island Chains??

From Indonesia for instance??

After the Ice Age??

Sea levels were a lot lower then....

A lot...



Technically we are still in an Ice Age ...correct?

burdman30ott6
I'm not sure if it was the exact same species or the slightly smaller (5') one, but the guy on River Monsters investigated these in Japan on an episode. Apparently there are local legends of children being drowned by these salamanders. They are extremely territorial and will bite when disturbed. They also have the ability to wedge themselves between rocks underwater and he theorized that it was very possible that a small child could be grabbed by a limb and be unable to get away from the salamander.

Yeah, that's the one. I saw that episode not long ago. Its a killer. It will go after small kids. He had to noodle it to catch it.

That's a really big freakin' salamander. At six feet long it could give a grown man a bad day in deep enough water if it got a hold of your leg.