A bus driver found a 15-kilogram Chinese Giant Salamander on a road in Longgang District, the Daily Sunshine reported Monday.

The 1.2-meter reptile was handed over to the district's fishery department, which said it would return the animal to nature after finding a suitable place, the report said.

Li Tai, the driver, said he saw the reptile on the road and stopped the bus to pick it up, attracting a large audience of his bus passengers.

The salamander is known as a "baby fish" in China because of the sound it makes. Li thought it was a "baby fish," which was on the State list of protected species, and called police.

Of all the salamanders they had confiscated, police said it was the largest and heaviest they had seen.

It could be 10 years old, police said, and could have been sold for tens of thousands of yuan on the black market.

Police suspected the reptile had been illegally caught and had escaped in transit.

The Chinese Giant Salamander is one of the world's largest salamanders. With a broad head and mouth, it is usually dark-colored with light colors underneath and black patches on its upper side.

The four limbs are short and its tail accounts for more than half its length. It has a smooth, thick skin. It is quite sensitive to its environment such as water quality and temperature and the number in the wild has decreased because of loss of habitat and pollution.

(Shenzhen Daily January 25, 2005)