Japanese giant salamander

High school (ages 12+)
Animals & Nature

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/japanese-giant-salamander

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How big is Japanese giant salamander?Maximum recorded length of 5 feet (1.5 meters)
2. Who discovered Japanese giant salamander?First cataloged by Europeans in the 1820s by Philipp Franz von Siebold
3. What is the scientific name?Andrias japonicus
4. What is the diet?Carnivorous, feeding on fish, crustaceans, insects, and amphibians
5. Where does it live?It lives mainly in clean, cold, fast‑flowing rivers and streams on the island of Honshu, and also in smaller groups on Shikoku and northern Kyushu.
6. Why is it important to rivers?It eats fish and insects, keeping the river food web balanced. Because it needs very clean water, its presence shows that a river is healthy.

Endemic: Native or restricted to a certain country or area.
Morphology: The study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features.
Bioindicator: A species that provides information about the health of an ecosystem.
Anthropogenic Impacts: Environmental changes caused or influenced by human activities.