 Hello and welcome to our Tōri adventure in Japan. This is a small little seaside fishing village where we are going to see one of the most endangered species in Japan. That is the giant salamander. But before we get into that and there's going to be a lot more than just giant salamanders in this video, I can assure you, let's check out where we're staying in this old style like Ryokan area. Anyway, let's go in. And it is way bigger than I was expecting. I've never really stayed in a Ryokan before. So this is all kind of new to me. I've only stayed in a room that was sort of themed. What you want to see is this, this, like the Tami room. Ah, it's gorgeous. The view you get of the rooftop, trees and everything there. You've got some bonsais off in the distance. Beautiful, like what you want to see when you come to the countryside of Japan. And then out the front, a lovely busy road, as you can say, when it comes to a place like this. Why does it sound like it's coming from everywhere? It's at the opposite of Salad Hill. You don't hear that. But this is, everything gets happy. We all just do it. This guy down here is the protector of the forge. Like if you're naughty, you get smack. That's his brand there. Do you see anybody with that on their shins? You know they've been naughty. Welcome to the tour with the Game Beaver. Where he just finds weird things and makes some jokes or funny things next to them. Do you own for this random fire hose? That's what she said. What we're here for is the endangered Japanese giant salamander. I've been invited to take a tour by Richard, who is in charge of a nonprofit organization in order to spread awareness and conservation of the river systems that they're in, as well as the wider area. And not only while we're doing that, we have to do it at night because little did I know salamanders are actually nocturnal creatures. So we're going to have to get on headlights and everything. And that's going to be, well, I mean, you'll see very, very shortly. We're going to a place that he calls the Jurassic Park of Japan, as well as a Jurassic Rock. So there's waterfalls and it feels as if you're back on Isla Nubla. Let's just cut to that stuff. That's interesting. Bye. And just like that, we are in the heart of the wilderness. And up there is a place that is supposed to, I mean, even just looking at it from here, it's almost like the mountain ranges from Hawaii. You see them in all the movies, especially Jurassic Park. And behind that, just around that corner is a view that's apparently unlike any other. So we set off with our guide, Richard, to find this Jurassic Rock, which took a lot longer than this footage leads you to believe. But when we did get there, the view was amazing. It was just missing a tiny something. And there it is. There's the pan shot. Absolutely amazing. And that's when we get copyright struck. So we stopped that with the mountain conquered. I thought it was about time to sit down with Richard to hear his story and how he even got involved with preserving these practically prehistoric amphibians. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thank you for taking the time out of your day, especially showing me this place. This is beautiful meeting you here. You can tell me all about the giant, the Japanese giant salamanders. Three recognized types of giant salamanders in the world. Oh, in the world. North American one, which is called the Hellbender, very dramatic name. Then you've got the Chinese giant salamander and the Japanese giant salamander. What makes the Japanese salamander different to the other species that are out there? So they've been in the current form shape for an estimated 23 million years. Since I've been in Japan, I've always been based in this area. So I've always also tried to promote it so to get people away from Kyoto and Tokyo and share the love and the wealth. The management of the National Park here, the Okinational Park, they asked me for some advice about how to attract foreigners to this beautiful area. Talking about the animals and they mentioned about the giant salamander and the fact that they've been trying to start like an ecotourism. I just see them and I learn about them and began to understand the pretty desperate situation that they face. Very little research being done, so there's very little data. But a lot of experts think on the general consensus is that there's a strong chance they're going to go extinct in the next 20 to 50 years. That's short of a period of time. Not even hundreds, not even thousands, within our lifetime. But potentially within the next 20 years they could be all gone. Environmental education is really not a thing in Japan. Right. And because of that, then very few people are trained to become, you know, to work with the environment. And then there's also very, very few jobs. But the other way of looking at it is not like the Siberian or Bengal tiger, right? You don't need to save 500 hectares of forest. Yeah. You need to put some concrete on the concrete in the rivers to make ramps for them to be able to breed and protect relatively small areas. They're very resilient and strong creatures. Hence why they've been able to survive for 23 million years. Since we had to wait for Nightfall to see the giant salamanders, we made a quick stop at a place called Jupiterian Hill. This is home to Missy Yamanuchi and Miss Ono, both of which make amazing pieces of art I just have to show you. All right. So we're here in Jupiter Hill with a Jupiterian Hill. That's the one. A Woodscraft master and he's made some amazing pieces. Oh, wow. There were so many different types of things to see here. There was plenty of furniture. There was also things that could really only be considered art. And then some weird stuff. This is like a terrible battle droid from Star Wars. We'll get him. We'll get Luke Skywalker in a second. Then we entered the showroom which was filled to the brim with amazing pieces created by Mr. Yamanuchi and Miss Ono, respectively. All the wood was carved and created by Mr. Yamanuchi and Miss Ono was the one to create all the pottery in the Jomon era style. Yeah, you'd imagine what are the little people in Star Wars? Ewoks. That's it. It looks like an Ewok. Ewok lives there. The creations that Mr. Yamanuchi and Miss Ono have made here were it not for a better phrase out of this world. And before long, I was ready to make first contact with the aliens. The pyramids. The people of the pyramids, they do this like... There we go. That's it. I'm getting there. I'm there. I killed the alien. As if that wasn't enough, just around the corner of the showroom lay what I can only describe as an entire village that Mr. Yamanuchi had created. Each one of these huts different from the last. Inside of which, lay a variety of different stoves and fire pits for all your primeval shenanigans. Cockpit. There you go. You've got your fire here. You're drinking your mysterious liquid. Get a little bit like... The next thing you know, you're praising that thing. But there was however one caveat to the beauty and majesty of these homes. We weren't the only ones sharing the space. Oh, the fudge. Don't poke it. Oh my God, I can hear it moving. That's like something from Zelt. Oh, now it's... James, I love you, bud. James, I love you. I'm out. I'm out. Fuck this. I didn't sign up for this. So I best get going to the giant salamanders before my cameraman decides to quit the job. Right, so we are now at the location of the giant salamanders. This is the end of the sort of river system that they're a part of. And unfortunately, this bit is a highly degraded habitat for them. Not so much the dams, but it's the weirs that really stop the salamanders from getting upstream where they would more likely be and where they need to spawn as well. So we're going to check out this sort of badly degraded habitat before then venturing further up and seeing maybe what a more ideal situation for them would look like. So Richard, you're going to lead the way. Yes. Okay. Still a little bit early, so it might not be out quite yet. Right, okay. I have my very high tech scientific gear. What's the plan for? You'll see it eventually. Oh, okay. Some surprises. So let's I'll let you lead the way then. So we're at the sort of the mouth of the river, which is really near the ocean. So this is the limits of where they should really be. But due to rains and stuff like that, they get washed down. They get washed past down the manmade barriers and they can't get back up. So they spend what could possibly be the rest of their lives desperately trying to crawl back up to the habitat that they once had. Still probably a little early. So we'll go to the one place down and then come back here. They tried to get up there for an extended period of time and then you'll often see them. They just start resting on the side. Yeah, exactly. So last June after heavy rains, I found six. Six of them. We are having to keep the location of this place a secret as poachers from the pet trade might come to this location and take them from it. One, two, three, barrier. All in this one section. So this river is actually only six kilometers long. Okay. It's very short because it's coming off the mountain, right? And I went through the maps and I counted 53 of these wheels. All along it? Yeah. 53. And this is all just to slow down the water? Yeah, slow down the water because they straightened the river trying to fix a man-made problem. So our goal is from here. Certainly as far up as where we're trying to make like a private sanctuary in our organic farming project. Now also, ideally, if fish can go up there as well, that would be even better. Another thing as well now, all this here wasn't here last year, and actually a couple of weeks ago it was even worse. So this is signs of nitrates in the water that something's going on. Right. Aka pollution from animal farms that's increasing the nitrate level in the water. Lower the amount of oxygen. Right, for the salamanders. And everything else. And everything else like fish, yeah. My own research and recently worked through the license researcher, we found some big salamanders in here like 80 centimetres, possibly 60 years old, something like that, but often with limbs missing, damaged eyes, throwing down, dropping off the whiz, not enough places for them to find shelter, they're going to be smacked around by the water into rocks and things. And because they're amphibians, they've got thin skin. Yeah, exactly. So it's going to damage. And then for the eyes, chemicals from agricultural runoff could be affecting them so it's pretty sad really. We do what we can and then try and preserve the better parts of habitat as well. But this habitat isn't just home to the giant salamander. Fish, frogs and newts also call this place home. Fire bedding, so it's actually highly toxic. Oh, what? So it's called tetrododoxin, which is the same as puffer fish, fugu. Oh, really? It kills people when you eat the liver, right? So it's okay to touch like this or wash my hands they're on. If you were to chew on it, you'd probably be You would die. The sixth most deadly toxin known to man. So you would suffocate to death in about six hours. Unfortunately, this was the biggest amphibian we were going to find in this part of the river. Water's running too fast here, he says, they could be down there. But we're going to go further up. This is the type environment here which serves no benefit to them. It's not deep enough really to, I guess, hydrate the skin. Also, there's no prey. There's nothing for them to eat. No fish. So they get stuck in this part because they're always trying to get up. I'm going to be stuck here until rain comes again, washes them down further or they die. There wasn't any giant salamanders in that part of the river, but slightly upstream our look was about to change. Right there. Yeah, I see them just against the wall for about, like, that big 40 years old. So that's older than me, that one. And just like that, we found our first giant Japanese salamander. By taking a picture of the salamander, Richard can use the markings to identify it. He also uses the photo's GPS data showing where in the river they have been found and to see if they've made any progress making it up the river at all. Well, if we're going to see more, it'd be quite interesting to see the difference in the water quality, too. The problem with the weirs is they also have holes at their base where the water flows out. But for the salamanders, these basically act as traps. Richard told me that he's often seen five or six salamanders in one of these, desperately trying to crawl through the tiny hole at the end that goes nowhere. If those salamanders that fall down, especially at this far with the ocean being not that far away, really, they're not going to survive. This is like a freshwater salamander. The thing is, the one we saw was quite a small one. And it's usually the large ones that might have the energy to stay put. If there's a large amount of water that comes down that torrential rain, they can sort of hold their footing and just keep stuck against the walls. But the little ones are the ones that might get pushed down. When they start reproducing, they have to be 15. That's a long time for them to be that small 15 years if they, at the top, to survive. 15 years without torrential rain, without being washed down. We're going to move off to our second site now and hopefully there, that's where they're going to be a little bit better off. The dark of night kept us company as we made our way to a different river system. This one, according to Richard, is an environment that is better suited for the salamanders, but not great. Even just seeing that single salamander there, just tucked away, huddled away, down past these nigh impossible barriers for it to climb up. It's kind of depressing, because you know what it wants to do. It wants to get further up, because that's what its nature tells it to do and where it needs to be. It doesn't know what it faces, but you do. But hopefully we can spread the awareness and enact some sort of change to help them out. Isn't that right, Richard? So this, basically where we are now, is like a small pocket of good habitat. Not great habitat. But relative to where we were before, it's good. There are a couple of weirs, but they do seem to have worked their way around them. And above the last weir, before the big dam, there's a couple of quite healthy ones. But you'll see the ones in this stretch are quite thin. So that's an important thing to remember, because the old agriculture system, the pre-concrete and pre-chemical, was actually very beneficial for amphibians, right? You've got these mini wetlands, aka rice fields, everywhere, right? So that was very good for frogs, snakes, but modern farming is kind of ruined that. OK, let's go see if we can find a salamander then. Richard's hoping to spot three giant salamanders in this river system. Well, this is the habitat that the salamanders like. You know, lots of rocks, weeds to climb over. It's not like this can't stop water flow. You found one? OK. Coming over. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, you were saying they could be yellow, and that is a very yellow. Yeah, this one's a long boy. I would say this is about quite a lot. It's just thin. With one down, that still left two others, which meant really getting stuck into the thick of the river. So, entering the end of this part of the river, the weirs sort of came into view for a salamander, so that big and that high with little big legs. It's not going to be able to climb that or get around it to the next part. So chances are we're going to see a lot of salamanders maybe at this bit up here that have got all the way and then got stuck. And that's all they can do. Do you have a spider on me? Oh, OK. I wouldn't be surprised. No, I would not touch you. Have you had a spider? And then we spotted it at the edge of the river hiding under a log. Wow. Oh, there it goes. Trying to squeeze itself in there. Definitely doing something under there. Quite healthy compared to the skinny girl. You think that's because it's higher up river and there's more chance of better prey. And this is an area that's good for them or better than what we... It's better than what you saw before but there's a big dam up ahead, massively fragmented. So I said it's like a pocket of good habitat. At this point I had spent a full day with Richard and I could see that all of this was weighing heavy on his conscience. Not only is he the only person that is actively going out to these rivers but he's also the one to deal with the uphill battle and the local government. We need a bit of money, not that much in the general scope of things. You're kind of forcing the will at the moment. They've got to have someone speak up for them, right? It has no idea of the bureaucracy and everything you deal with. Probably kill itself a bit. So I'm going to the ocean, boys. It's like, I've got the paper. I need a signature from every salamander in the area. And that's just to organise a meeting. You've got another one. Oh, well done. Yeah, it's a bit like younger as well. It's actually not a bad sign. And with that we'd hit the magic number three. The crazy thing is this river isn't even protected because no one from the government or even the top person involved in the conservation of these giant salamanders has even looked down here. The salamanders that we've seen aren't protected and if it wasn't for Richard, these salamanders would have been completely forgotten about. And then lay before us was the imposing sight of a ginormous dam. Oh, oh my God, that is huge. Oh God, they'd have to get through all that. I mean, that's it, isn't it? That right there, that giant dam, nothing you could do, nothing they could do. So, I mean, there could have been salamanders here but they probably were killed. Yeah, absolutely. And this river has zero protection. At all? Zero environmental protection? Zero. So the main river we went to before and there's another feeder river that has, in theory, on paper at least some kind of protection. This one, nothing. And we found salamanders in there? We found salamanders in there. And above there is where recently I checked it seems to be a very good protection. Or my big mission now is to get this river protected. Well, I'm pretty sure it's not protected because no one checked. Right, it's not that, they're not there, it's just no one knows they're there. No one knows they're there. And no one wants to know they're there. Exactly, so no one's made the effort to go and look. It really feels as though this is something that, if I was a Japanese person, a species that only exists in my country, I'd want to try my best to protect it. Right, so that serves true the English mind. England, yeah, I suppose. And if they just don't have the education about, then they don't have that connection. From our perspective, it's pretty sad that they're in English bias like that. As we made our way back to the car, I was left thinking about the truly desperate situation these salamanders are trapped in. So we managed to find, I think it was four giant Japanese salamanders down there seeing the difference from the environments, especially from the mouth of the river following it up and what an environment for them would ideally look like as we near the end and seeing that massive dam and just it put into perspective just the sheer scale of the problems that these salamanders are facing and it's not only giant man-made dams but it's also the agriculture in the area and the dumping of animal waste that is causing nitrates and pollution which is, in essence, poisoning these prehistoric creatures that have been here for 20 million years. Thanks to Richard, he's shedding light on a species that personally I thought would have been receiving the care that it genuinely needs. We all want to see dinosaurs back in existence. We all want to have that Jurassic Park and yet here we are and we have it yet nobody is doing anything about it to see something wiped out by people not doing anything and that's the problem, you know, if we don't have words with government or act then these things will be gone within 20 years, according to Richard and if you have wanted to learn anything more about these salamanders and their plight I will put in the description a link to Richard's salamander conservation efforts and hopefully he can keep on doing the great work that he's doing here and just preserve this species that once thrived in a river or river ecosystem and is now, you know, out of all of Japan it's basically the only remaining wild species as the rest of Japan has been usurped by hybridisation with other salamanders that have been brought in or just vanished from an ecosystem that can no longer sustain it. But anyway guys, if you enjoyed the video I guess leave a like and until next time well, I'd like to be back here maybe I'll see you then. Bye bye.