Here’s a ridiculous creature that’s just too wonderfully bizarre for us to let it go extinct: the Chinese giant salamander.

These massive murk-dwellers are the largest living amphibians on Earth – reaching almost six feet. Their fat tongues wiggle between long rows of nibbling teeth. They slurp in prey by sucking water into their mouths and then munching on whatever is trapped inside. “And when it comes to prey,” writes the St. Louis Zoo, “the giant salamander will eat just about anything it can suck into its mouth,” including fish, worms, small mammals, and even carrion or its own shed skin.

Sometimes, when there’s nothing else to scarf down, these sausage dragons turn on each other, chomping into the blotched, bulbous flesh of their brethren. I’m sure the cannibalism tastes good – giant salamanders are a delicacy in Asia and have been hunted nearly to extinction.

There are still some Chinese giant salamanders left in the wild. They settle into dark hallows and underwater caves in southwestern China. However, most now live in zoos, where they can live to be 52 years old.

Learn more about them and the efforts to protect the dying species here.

(Credits: International Cooperation Network for Giant Salamander Conservation, EDGE)