giant salamander chicken
© ZSL / GETTYThe Chinese giant salamander is said to taste like chicken.
A REAL-life river monster that has survived since the age of the dinosaurs is being hurriedly eaten towards extinction. The Chinese giant salamander has become the must have delicacy among Far East luxury diners who prize its lean but chewy flesh said to taste like chicken.

Despite being embedded in Chinese myth and folklore, with the iconic yin and yang symbols for opposites supposedly representing two salamanders entwined, the 6ft-long amphibian is now so desired by epicures that its 170 million history is in peril.

Four years of research across 97 known Chinese strongholds show how the striking muddy brown salamander - affectionately known as "wa wa yu" or baby fish as their distress calls are said to sound like a crying child - has all but vanished from its freshwater haunts.

Although the Chinese authorities prohibit the hunting of the salamander - scientific name Andrias davidianus - the country's ministry of agriculture allows the widespread release of farmed animals to aid its conservation.

This practice, warn conservationists, may be harmful to wild populations as it risks spreading disease and mixing genetic lineages.

To add to the wild population's parlous state, salamanders are also being routinely harvested from the wild to stock commercial breeding farms.

After a landmark study into the near blind salamanders, published today in the journal Current Biology and which has seen scientists from ZSL (Zoological Society of London) working with Chinese colleagues, there are calls for captive breeding of genetically distinct lineages to assist their conservation.

Study co-author Dr Samuel Turvey, from ZSL's Institute of Zoology, said today: "The overexploitation of these incredible animals for human consumption has had a catastrophic effect on their numbers in the wild over an amazingly short time-span.

"Unless coordinated conservation measures are put in place as a matter of urgency, the future of the world's largest amphibian is in serious jeopardy."

Some distinct salamander lineages may have already disappeared, according to a related study led by Kunming Institute of Zoology with ZSL and the Royal Ontario Museum, which has discovered how the species consists of five genetic groups.

Co-author Dr Fang Yan from KIZ said: "Together with addressing wider pressures such as poaching for commercial farms and habitat loss, it's essential that suitable safeguards are put in place to protect the unique genetic lineage of these amazing animals, which dates back to the time of the dinosaurs."