Kyoto Aquarium

This guide to Kyoto Aquarium centers on the Japanese giant salamander, a species little changed in tens of millions of years and now threatened by interbreeding with Chinese giant salamanders introduced into local rivers last century. It traces the hybrid crisis researchers have tracked in the nearby Kamo and Katsura rivers, and how the aquarium built almost all its marine tanks from artificial seawater rather than draw from the sea. Start near the salamander tank before wandering toward the ocean side.