Zhuxi Giant Salamander

Zhuxi Giant Salamander

　　The giant salamander is a rare amphibian, classified as a second-class nationally protected aquatic wildlife species in China. Commonly known as the "baby fish," it belongs to the class Amphibia, order Caudata, and family Cryptobranchidae. It holds significant importance in both species classification and evolution, and also boasts high nutritional, medicinal, and ornamental value. The meat of the giant salamander is tender and has a unique flavor, offering exceptional nutritional benefits. Its protein contains 17 amino acids, including 8 that are essential for the human body. As a precious medicinal animal, the giant salamander has been documented as early as in the classic texts “Shan Hai Jing” and “Compendium of Materia Medica.” According to modern clinical observations, it shows remarkable therapeutic effects on conditions such as anemia, cholera, dysentery, malaria, epilepsy, and menstrual disorders. Additionally, it helps nourish kidneys, strengthen bones, enrich blood, and improve circulation. It can also regulate microcirculation in the body, prevent heavy metal poisoning, delay aging, and assist in cancer treatment. Due to its broad prospects for development in cuisine, health care, medicine, and ornamental uses, it has attracted considerable attention from all sectors of society. In particular, its health and medicinal values have gained increasing recognition.

　　Our city is located in a mountainous region, crisscrossed by rivers and dotted with streams. The water is fresh, vegetation is lush, the climate is cool, moist, and temperate, and rainfall is abundant—all contributing to an outstanding natural environment that provides ideal living conditions for the giant salamander. It is an excellent habitat and breeding ground for the species. As a natural aquatic biological resource of our city, the giant salamander is widely distributed here with abundant resources. However, due to its low reproduction rate, along with the continuous destruction of its natural habitat and excessive human capture in recent years, the living areas and population size of the giant salamander have sharply declined. Especially the number of breeding individuals has decreased, leading to a serious decline in wild giant salamander resources. To effectively protect and rationally develop the giant salamander resources, in 1994, with the approval of the People’s Government of Hubei Province, the “Wanjiang River Giant Salamander Nature Reserve in Zhuxi County” was established. Through enhanced protection of wild resources and artificial breeding and release efforts, the wild giant salamander population has gradually recovered, and the declining trend of its natural resources has been somewhat curbed.

　　In recent years, with breakthroughs in eco-simulation breeding technology and the promotion of artificial farming techniques, solid groundwork has been laid for the large-scale and industrialized development of giant salamander farming. Currently, the artificial domestication and breeding of giant salamanders are developing well in our city, with mature production of adult salamanders and initial scale in breeding seedlings. There are now over 2,000 giant salamander breeders across the city, with more than 300,000 artificially bred salamanders, generating nearly 300 million yuan in output value.

　　In the future, our city will leverage the advantages of its mountainous geographical resources and giant salamander population resources. While protecting wild natural resources, we will focus on the artificial breeding and intensive processing of giant salamanders, aiming to achieve leapfrog development in the industry. This will make it a new growth point in the city's fishery sector and a highlight project for increasing farmers’ income. Plans include establishing a specialty giant salamander farming economic belt in Fang County, Zhushan, Zhuxi, and the urban area of Shiyan. A development model of “company + base + farmer households” will be implemented. Over the next 3–5 years, we aim to build 15 standardized ecological giant salamander seedling farms, breed 500,000 juvenile salamanders, involve 3,000 farming households in giant salamander breeding, and produce 500 tons of adult salamanders annually. At the same time, by developing deep processing of giant salamander products—including food, medicine, cosmetics, and health care—we will create a range of high-value-added products. This will establish an integrated giant salamander industry chain encompassing resource protection, scientific research, breeding production, and deep processing, aiming to achieve an output value of 1 billion yuan.