TOJFL ®

By
Reuters
and Daily Mail Reporter

Published:
14:21 GMT, 14 July 2014

|
Updated:
14:25 GMT, 14 July 2014

A Japanese high school student got the shock of his life after stumbling across a rare giant salamander on his morning commute.

Yu O was walking along the banks of the Kamo River in Kyoto on July 4 when he spotted the ‘huge’ amphibious creature strolling along.

Cell phone footage captured shows the slimy-looking animal slithering slowly on all fours with its long tail dragging behind. Yu estimates that it was more than one-meter-long.

Scroll down for video

After shooting the video, he went to a nearby police station and had
them take over as he was worried about running late for school.

Recalling the unusual wildlife encounter, the teenager told Reuters: ‘I was just walking without really paying any attention to it but once I got close to it, it started to move.

‘That’s when I realized it was this giant salamander and how I discovered it.’

The Japanese giant salamander is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (ICUN) Red List as a near threatened species.

While they can grow up to 150 centimeters, most are found in the wild are between 60-70 centimeters according to Japanese environment agency data.

‘It was definitely massive, it was really large. I’d say it was around 1.3 meters long.

‘It’s hard to see in the video but it was definitely over a meter long,’ Yu said of the giant creature he discovered.

His video of the salamander has already
received over 1.9 million hits on YouTube, with a flurry of comments comparing it to
everything from Godzilla to Pokemon.

After police arrived, the lizard-like amphibian slowly returned to the river.

While the salamander is large, the Chinese giant salamander is also in the same class and sometimes larger, reaching up to 1.8 meters in length.

Comments (8)

Share what you think

• 
  
  Newest
• 
  
  Oldest
• 
  
  Best rated
• 
  
  Worst rated

The comments below have not been moderated.

Smallgreenbouncyone,

here,

26 minutes ago

3 things, DM:
A – a salamander is an amphibian – Godzilla was a reptile!
B – at 1 metre long, it’s hardly Godzilla-sized anyway!
C – the correct spelling is METRE – not METER! Meter is how the Yanks spell it!

Patrick,

Norfolk,

38 minutes ago

This is nothing, I saw a soon to be extinct Scottish salamander watching the Scottish open in Aberdeen on the week end.

Michael Hunt,

U of K,

1 hour ago

This was on the BBC a week ago. Have you only just read it?

Brian,

Beautiful Mid Wales,

2 hours ago

I am amazed it escaped someones kitchen table. Lets hear it for the Salamander.

commonsense,

intherealworld, United Kingdom,

2 hours ago

So cute, just going on about his daily business :))))

Kevin,

Newport News, United States,

2 hours ago

Godzilla was a reptile, this is an amphibian. DM on top of things again

Saska,

Liverpool,

3 hours ago

Reminds me of Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon 🙂

derbyram,

Derby, United Kingdom,

3 hours ago

Japanese boy sees animal native to Japan in Japan shock!

Bonnie Parker,

London, Canada,

4 hours ago

It’s nice to hear a young man say that he is worried about being late for school. Good character and good work ethics.

superchuke,

chicago, United States,

4 hours ago

you thats a bigg-un. well its nice they let it live.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Who is this week’s top commenter?
Find out now