--- title: Giant 200 Year Old Salamander Evades Capture in Cave description: The species is listed as critically endangered because of poachers canonical: https://time.com/4152884/giant-salamander-found-in-cave-china/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-17T00:06:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:27:52.247Z og:title: Giant 200-Year-Old Salamander Found in Chinese Cave og:description: It's 4.5 feet long and weighs 114 pounds og:url: https://time.com/4152884/giant-salamander-found-in-cave-china/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Giant 200-Year-Old Salamander Found in Chinese Cave twitter:description: It's 4.5 feet long and weighs 114 pounds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Giant 200-Year-Old Salamander Found in Chinese Cave by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Dec 17, 2015 12:06 AM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Dec 17, 2015 12:06 AM UTC Scientists captured an endangered [giant salamander](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/12/16/scientists-find-a-200-year-old-giant-salamander-just-chilling/?tid=sm%5Ffb) believed to be some 200 years old in a cave in a China. The amphibian is 4.5 feet long and weighs 114 pounds, according to the Washington Post, citing reports from the [People’s Daily online](http://fj.people.com.cn/n/2015/1211/c350395-27299369.html). That’s actually not very large for the species Andrias davidianus, the paper reports, as the huge animals can grow to be about six feet long. Because the species is critically endangered, scientists removed the ancient beast from its cave and moved it to [a protective research facility](http://news.discovery.com/animals/endangered-species/rare-giant-salamander-found-in-cave-in-china-151215.htm). The _Post_ reports that the salamanders are a delicacy in China—the species is a target for poachers—and their population has declined about 80% over the last 50 years. \[[_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/12/16/scientists-find-a-200-year-old-giant-salamander-just-chilling/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4152884/giant-salamander-found-in-cave-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4152884/giant-salamander-found-in-cave-china/"},"headline":"Giant 200-Year-Old Salamander Found in Chinese Cave","datePublished":"2015-12-17T00:06:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:27:52.247Z","description":"It's 4.5 feet long and weighs 114 pounds","url":"https://time.com/4152884/giant-salamander-found-in-cave-china/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","China","Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4152884/giant-salamander-found-in-cave-china/","name":"Giant 200-Year-Old Salamander Found in Chinese Cave"}}]}] ```