Unger takes research on giant salamanders to Japanese audience

By Chuck Gordon

The hellbender salamander holds a special place in Dr. Shem Unger's heart. The Wingate University associate professor of biology has studied the species of large salamanders for two decades, and he has developed a real affinity for them.

"I think of them as like a charismatic megafauna," he says. "They almost look primordial."

Still, Unger wasn't prepared for the Japanese people's love for the hellbender's Asian cousin, the hanzaki, or Japanese giant salamander. Unger recently returned from a 10-day trip to Japan, where he spoke at a mini-symposium and a conference dedicated to the hanzaki, visited zoos and toured natural areas inhabited by hanzaki.

Everywhere he went, people knew about their native giant salamander, which, at up to five feet long and 55 pounds, is much larger than the hellbender that Unger studies.

"One day we visited a school, and these kindergarteners performed a song and a whole dance about the giant salamander," he says. "And there, the giant salamander of Japan is designated as a 'living natural monument.'"

Although salamander researchers in Japan might be ahead on marketing, they're lagging behind their North American colleagues in certain ways regarding conservation. The prevalence of dammed rivers, the pollution of streams and the impacts of climate change have made giant salamanders in the United States and Japan vulnerable. One Japanese researcher told Unger that giant salamanders "basically didn't reproduce" the past two years in one particular river because of warming waters.

On top of that, although giant salamanders are at the top of the food chain in their environments, their eggs are vulnerable to predators. "They're basically fish food," says Unger, who adds that male giant salamanders are "good dads," spending months guarding the eggs.

In North America, researchers, including Unger, have been "headstarting": removing salamander eggs from the wild, raising salamanders in a lab and then releasing them back into the wild once they're big enough to survive on their own.

With giant salamander populations starting to decline in Japan, Unger was invited to give a talk about headstarting and noninvasive methods of surveying salamanders at the 20th Japanese Giant Salamander Society Hanzaki Conference in Nabari. Six hundred people attended the conference.

Unger grew up in Panama, where he spent the bulk of his days outside. "Growing up in Panama, surrounded by biodiversity - how could I not get into biology or science?" he says. He learned to scuba dive in his teens, and after he graduated with a biology degree from Texas A&M University, it was natural for him to study aquatic creatures.

In the 25 years since he started studying giant salamanders, Unger has become one of the stalwarts of the hellbender research universe, focusing on the larval stage of the amphibian's development. He's in a good place to research them, with the North Carolina mountains one of the few areas in the species' range where hellbender numbers are good.

"They do really well in our high mountain streams, our headwater streams that are basically trout streams," says Unger, who has taught at Wingate since 2015. "Clear, cool waters surrounded by forests - that's where we find really good populations."

Unfortunately, areas in the Midwest and Northeast are experiencing declines in hellbender populations, much of it caused by human activity. To avoid disturbing hellbender habitats further, Unger has been helping develop noninvasive ways of studying the creatures.

At the conference in Japan, he described ways of detecting, capturing, marking and releasing salamanders that cause as little impact as possible. These include the use of underwater cameras and microchips.

He also brought back some tips for conservationists here, including the use of "salamander ladders" built into dams.

Unger's research, and that of everyone studying giant salamanders, is important beyond simply the survival of salamanders.

"Amphibians are always like the canaries in the coal mine," Unger says. "They're the sensitive species that are bioindicators of change, because they don't do well with pollution.

"More work needs to be done to engage and inform the public by doing more outreach science and teaching the next generation about the plight of salamanders and their importance to the ecosystem, so that future generations can enjoy these amazing creatures."

Learn moreabout studying biology at Wingate University.

Nov. 1, 2025