In the vertebrate laboratory of the biology department at National Taiwan Normal University stands a pair of refrigerators. Inside them are found not food and drinks for the students and teachers but jar after jar of biological specimens for study and observation.

Don't make the mistake of thinking all the specimens are dead. One refrigerator holds a special secret. In it are kept two live specimens--a pair of shanchiaoyu, or "mountain-pepper-fish," the Formosan salamander.

Keeping live fish in the refrigerator is unusual; even more unusual is the appearance of these so-called "fish." Removed from their frigid confines, the little fellows, not four inches long, cling tightly to the floor on all fours and stare up with bulging round goldfish eyes, sizing up visitors curiously.

Safe and snug in the icebox, where do these wonderful creatures come from, the Eskimos of the amphibian world? Their forebears originally "immigrated" here from Siberia during the last ice age 100,000 years ago. At that time the entire East Asian landmass was linked together, and the salamanders spread out to Manchuria, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. Some of them came to "settle down" in Taiwan, cold year-round at the time.

Distant in place of origin, the Formosan salamander is close, zoologically, to the frog. Salamanders belong to the order Caudata (meaning "tailed") of the family Amphibia; frogs, to the order Anura, or "tailless." Salamanders do not lose their tails like frogs do when they develop from tadpoles into adults. Nor do they develop long legs with upper and lower limbs. All they can do is crawl. They could easily pass for lizards.

"Since the Formosan salamander looks like a lizard, people often mistakenly think it's a reptile," says Chen Shih-huang, assistant professor of biology at NTNU. Actually, the salamander's skin a lot prettier than a reptile's. The reason is that the adult's lungs, which replace the tadpole's gills, are not very well developed, so its skin must be kept moist by glandular secretions to help it breathe. Compared with the horny hide of a reptile, the salamander's "complexion" is much more smooth and beautiful.

And while it cannot jump, the Formosan salamander's status as a rare species, and its habitat, are both "higher" than its cousin's, the frog's. That's because, when temperatures on Taiwan rose after the last ice age, a lot of the salamanders died and the survivors had to move on up. If you want to see a Formosan salamander now, you either have to look for them in the mountains 7000 or 8000 feet high or else visit the little guys in the refrigerator at NTNU.

And laying hold of that pair was not easy either. Writing a thesis on the salamander, Chen Shi-huang, together with Professor Lu Kuang-yang and nature photographer Chang Cheng-hsiung, trekked across nearly the whole of Taiwan's Central Mountain Range to find them. Besides being scarce and hard to track, the Formosan salamander is a quiet creature, without any cry to follow. It likes to hide in wet, dark places like rock crevices, creekbeds, or fallen leaves, where its earthy color escapes the covetous eyes of its enemies. As a result, even experts must rely on intuiton to judge possible hiding places and often have to leave no stone--or leaf--unturned before coming up with the spoils.

If, eventually, you are lucky enough to find one, you have got to take care on the way down. "We brought down three salamanders from the top of Mount Yu in August 1981. Two of them couldn't take it and died of the heat," Chen says painfully.

Genetic changes have caused the Formosan salamander, a long-time immigrant to Taiwan, to differentiate itself into a separate species. The salamanders on Taiwan even vary according to location--in the shape of their vomer teeth (supplementary teeth on the upper oral cavity). "But the differences aren't great and they still belong to the same species," Chen says. The NTNU biology department continues to study them.

But no matter what the differences, just by being found on Taiwan the salamanders have a high value scientifically. Not only is the Formosan salamander the most southerly of all its species, but, of the eight families of amphibians, Taiwan is home to just one family and of that family, to just one species--the Formosan salamander.

[Picture Caption]

The salamander's skin patterning varies with geographical location. This salamander is found at altitudes above 3000 meters; the one with large spots on the lower right, at 2000.

the one with large spots on the lower right, at 2000.