Worldwide reduction Giant salamander
Dr. Mizuki Takahashi, an asso - ciate professor of biology and animal behavior at Bucknell University, gained an immediate appreciation for giant salaman - ders when his parents gave him a book about them when he was in second or third grade. “I loved the book and imme - diately fell in love with the dino - saur-looking giant creatures that still exist in Japan. In fact, the skeletal structure of the crypto - branchid salamanders has mostly stayed the same over 160 million years! The book also did a great job of illustrating their life histo - ry and the environmental issues such as pollution and concrete banking,” he said. “I have the book in my office at Bucknell and show it to students in my amphibi - an class.” Similar in morphology and life history to the giant salamanders of Japan, hellbenders that live in waterways in the Susquehanna basin are smaller, flatter and bet - ter adapted to aquatic habitats. Takahashi has studied Japanese giant salamanders since 2012 and hellbenders locally since 2014. “Our work so far is mainly based on environmental DNA. We found the presence of hellbenders in the streams where there were no species all share plunge in trends Continued on next page
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