than 50,000 individuals. Shaanxi farms (mainly in the Qinling Mountain region) accounted for about 70% of the total output in China in 2012, but there are also many farms in Guizhou and several in other provinces. Among 43 south Shaanxi farms surveyed, 38 bred the species in 2010 and each produced an average of c. 10,300 larvae that year. Farming of Chinese giant salamanders, herbs and mushrooms are the three most important economic activities in Shaanxi's Qinling Mountain region, and many thousands of families rely on the giant salamander farms for income. The giant salamander farming mainly supplies the food market, but whether this can be achieved to an extent where the pressure on the wild populations is reduced is doubtful. Release of captive-bred Chinese giant salamanders is supported by the government (8,000 were released in Shaanxi in 2011 alone), but represent a potential risk to the remaining wild population, as diseases such as Ranavirus are known from many farms. The vast majority of the farmed Chinese giant salamanders, almost 80% based on a study published in 2018, are of Yellow River origin (the so-called haplotype B), although those from other regions also occur. Farms have generally not considered this issue when releasing giant salamanders and Yellow River animals now dominate in some regions outside their original range, further endangering the native types. Additionally, release of untreated wastewater from farms may spread diseases to wild Chinese giant salamanders. In zoos and aquariums As of early 2008, Species360 records show only five individuals held in US zoos (Zoo Atlanta, Cincinnati Zoo, and Saint Louis Zoological Park), and an additional four in European zoos (Dresden Zoo and Rotterdam Zoo); as well as one in the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, where it is also the museum's mascot. As of 2019, London Zoo holds four individuals (one of them on display) that were seized from an illegal importation of amphibians in 2016. A medium-sized individual, approximately long, was kept for several years at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, California, and is now on display again in the "Water Planet" section of the new California Academy of Sciences building. There are also two in residence at the Los Angeles Zoo. Additional individuals are likely kept in non-Species360 zoos and animals parks in its native China, such as Shanghai Zoo. Several of them are kept in the aquaria of Shanghai and Xian. The