The axolotl is my kid’s favorite animal. What’s not to love about them? Thanks to something called obligate neoteny, axolotls are magical little amphibians who (almost) never metamorphose from their aquatic form to a terrestrial one. As I would squeal to my husband, “THEY FOREVER BABIES.” They also belong to a small ecosystem that exists only in Mexico.
A popular pick for the exotic pet trade, the ever-smiling, feathery-gilled axolotl is easily bred in captivity, having further piqued the interest of scientists and geneticists through its ability to regenerate parts of its body, such as its limbs, eyes, heart, spinal cord and parts of its brain. As such, the species’ plight is regarded as a conservation paradox: although abundant in captivity, rampant habitat degradation and disturbance has rendered the species critically endangered in the wild.
Even weird animals occupying small niches in the ecosystem are critical. Even if they weren’t impossibly cute, the endangerment of axolotls would be a major concern.
But they are really cute, too.
Scientists who are surely compelled more by ecosystem restoration than Protecting The Babies have done the important work of finding out if we can get axolotls from scientists’ fish tanks back into the wetlands where they belong.
And indeed, it turns out that we can improve the axolotl population in Mexico by introducing captive-bred animals.
This study evaluates the viability of restored and artificial wetlands for axolotl conservation by comparing movement patterns, home range sizes, and habitat use. Using VHF telemetry, we tracked captive-bred axolotls released into both environments. Axolotls survived and foraged successfully in both sites, with those in an artificial pond in La Cantera Oriente exhibiting larger home ranges (mean: 2,747 m²) and greater daily distances traveled than those in a restored chinampa in Lake Xochimilco, where home ranges were smaller (mean: 382 m²).
If you read the entire abstract, you’ll find that the axolotls even gained weight under these conditions–meaning they are thriving. And chubby. Being chubby is SO important.
NPR interviewed these cuteness-saving scientists.
“This is pretty big news because when you have animals in captivity, they lose a lot of their behaviors. Like, they don’t know how to recognize a predator, they don’t know how to catch prey, and so we were a bit nervous when we released them because we didn’t know if they were going to be able to survive,” she continued.
But the charmingly cartoonish salamanders, also known as Mexican walking fish, didn’t just survive in their new wild homes, they thrived.
“The ones that we recaptured, they had gained weight. So that means they were doing really, really well,” Ramos said.
“They were hunting, they were eating, and they were avoiding predators. So this was really big,” she said.
This is wonderful news for the planet, of course, but also for kids who have fallen in love with axolotls thanks to Minecraft.
There are quite a few species that are extinct in the wild and now only exist in captivity. It would be amazing if axolotls didn’t join that number.
