Located right outside of my apartment are many rice fields, as I mentioned earlier. There is a type of salamander that lives the rice fields. The Oita Salamander is an endangered species that lives in Southern Japan, and also at Seishin school! The students, with the help of professor Akiyama 先生 (Sensei), have the amazing opportunity to study these creatures. Akiyama Sensei studies the reproductive habits of this species of salamander. He has been studying them for most of his life. In his last year as a teacher, I had the opportunity to help his studies by assisting with the feeding and maintenance of the salamanders' living areas.
This species of salamander is endangered due to over development by humans. Usually, these salamanders live in areas with slow running water, and some sort of vegetation as cover. Rice paddies are a perfect place for them. They also live near slow streams in wooded areas. But as the younger generation in Japan has less interest in growing rice fields, and more buildings are built where rice fields once were, the salamanders' ecosystem is harder to find. This means they may soon be extinct!
Here at Seishin, Akiyama Sensei has been studying how salamanders reproduce to find out what caused these little guys to become endangered.
