Artificial Shelter designs for the Japanese Giant Salamanders

Written by Jordy Groffen.

Jordy Groffen is a PhD candidate at James Cook University, Australia and has 10+ years of experience with animal conservation, behaviour, and ecology. He has designed, built and installed different artificial shelter types to monitor populations (or individuals) of amphibian species around the globe. He currently studies the potential use of artificial shelters as a conservation tool to protect the critically endangered nursery frogs from climate change in Australia.   

Currently, we are testing two distinct artificial shelter designs. The primary focus of our first design is to provide a shelter and nesting site for adult Japanese giant salamanders. To achieve this, we utilized a 90-litre plastic bin which we positioned upside down (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). A PVC pipe was securely installed within the bin to serve as an entrance tunnel. This structure allows for easy, non-invasive monitoring of the shelter and minimizes disturbance to the salamanders should the shelter be occupied.

Figure 1

The second design is a concrete shelter (Fig. 3, Fig. 4) This robust shelter is composed of three individual chambers Each chamber is equipped with its own entrance tunnel, created using PVC piping. Recruitment is one of the most important signs in assessing population health. That’s why we chose to use different size tunnels and consider the preferences of different age classes (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Concrete Shelter. Different size tunnels that consider the preferences of different age classes.

Both shelter designs were strategically placed in a natural stream with a relatively high density of Giant salamanders. This placement was selected to enhance the likelihood of occupancy during the testing phase of these artificial shelters. However, due to the many weirs in the river movement of the salamanders is limited, which decreases the chance of salamanders finding artificial shelters. The ultimate objective is to determine the preferred design of these shelters and subsequently deploy additional units in degraded rivers, thereby increasing the availability of shelter and nesting sites for Japanese giant salamanders.

Fig. 2: Inside view of plastic shelter.

Fig. 4: Concrete shelter installed in the stream.