Above the rice field where the frogs croak, a handful of fireflies light up the night with a bright red streak. The beams of four flashlights illuminate the water of the stream, swollen from the rain of the last few days. A voice sounds: “I have one!” » The looters regroup and wade with great strides. A few moments later, Sumio Okada pulls out of his test tube not one, but three giant salamanders with flat heads, brown skin covered in gooey mucus, and very small legs compared to the rest of the body. “I’m going to show you something I’ve never shown anyone except my family and some scientists,” Mr. Okada announces. After identifying the salamanders using the chip inserted under their skin, he uses a water pump to make them vomit and collect the contents of their stomachs. A way for him to better understand their diet.
The forty-year-old researcher is one of the best animal specialists. Residents of Tottori Prefecture in western Japan like to call him “Okada Sensei” (“Professor Okada”). You have to see him in action, by the light of his headlamp, meticulously recording his observations in a notebook exposed to the humidity. By knowing what the salamanders ate, he can assess the quality of their habitat. And as with any expedition, his observation is bitter: food is scarce in the area, and it is another threat to this amphibian, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature placed on the list of “endangered” species in 2022. “Every time I come here, I feel a knot in my stomach,” admits Mr. Okada in a quiet voice. Due to road construction work on the river, the salamanders can no longer reproduce. This place was one of their last reserves, and it is in danger in turn…” Basically, it is the disappearance of a world that he documents day after day in his notebook: that of rural Japan and its rivers, it is heavy half-timbered houses and their rice fields.
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Despite everything, he continues his investigation and puts the three amphibians in a pipe that looks like a gutter to measure them. All three are average height – the largest measures 80 centimeters. This makes it by far not the largest wild specimen ever observed: 1.36 meters, 26 kilos. Another special feature of this giant salamander: its longevity. Due to its low activity and metabolic regenerative ability, it can live up to a hundred years. This is also one of the explanations for its local name hanzake (“han” for “half”, “zake” for “torn”): “This refers either to its huge mouth, which opens with one side to the other.” ” There is a round head, or the fact that according to certain legends, even if a salamander is cut in two, it is able to reform,” explains Juliette Ako Sato, a French-Japanese woman who has one founded an association to protect this amphibian and accompanies the professor in his research.
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