KOTO –
If you are very lucky, you may encounter unusual amphibians in Japanese rivers that can grow up to 6 feet long and look like strange cartoon dinosaurs. They are gigantic salamanders.
“Salamanders are big and cool,” said Sena Ishikawa, a master’s student studying the animals at Kyoto University. “I just love them.”
Such passion for the slippery species, which Japan has labeled a “special national treasure,” prompted Ishikawa and two other students to set out along Kyoto’s Kamo River on an unusually cold evening in March, wearing headlamps, a waterproof overalls and knee-high shoes. rubber boots and neon yellow safety vests, and wearing what looked like oversized butterfly nets.
