All printables
Japanese Giant Salamander — printable fact sheet
Free to print or save as PDF. Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and young explorers.
Creature Atlas
Animal Fact Sheet
Name: ____________________
Date: ____________________
Japanese Giant Salamander
Andrias japonicus
Andrias japonicus reaches 1.5 m and 25 kg, making it the second-largest amphibian on Earth, and it lives in cold, fast, rocky streams in western Japan, where it is called hanzaki - a name usually explained by the belief that it could be cut in half and survive. Almost entirely a…
Did you know?
- The Japanese Giant Salamander is considered a living fossil, having changed little since the time of the dinosaurs.
- Japanese giant salamanders can live over 50 years, and one at Amsterdam Zoo reportedly reached 52. They secrete a milky, sticky mucus with a strong odour that has been compared to Japanese pepper, which is one origin story for the hanzaki name. Their lineage has changed remarkably little in tens of millions of years, and a 30-million-year-old European fossil of a related giant salamander was once famously mistaken for a human drowned in Noah's flood.
What I learned
Draw the japanese giant salamander
© Creature Atlas · www.creatureatlas.com · Free for classroom & personal use
Want the whole set?
Get printable fact-sheet packs, coloring pages, and classroom worksheet bundles for dozens of animals — ready to download and print.
Browse printable packsGet a free printable each week
Join the newsletter for a new Creature of the Week + printables.