Axolotl

"In Mexican axolotls’ main habitat, the population density has plummeted 99.5% in under two decades . . . Despite the creature’s recent rise to popularity, almost all 18 species of axolotl in Mexico remain critically endangered, threatened by encroaching water pollution, a deadly amphibian fungus and non-native rainbow trout. While scientists could once find 6,000 axolotls on average per square kilometer in Mexico, there are now only 36, according to the National Autonomous University’s latest census."

In 2022, "local politicians released 200 captive-raised axolotls into a polluted canal, for a media stunt that most likely ended with all of them dying."

"With their gray-green waters and blue herons, the canals and island farms of Xochimilco in southern Mexico City are all that remain of the extensive network of shimmering waterways that so awed Spanish invaders when they arrived here 500 years ago. But the fragility of this remnant of pre-Columbian life was revealed last month, when a 20-feet-deep hole opened in the canal bed, draining water and alarming hundreds of tour boat operators and farmers who depend on the waterways for a living. The hole intensified a simmering conflict over nearby wells, which suck water from Xochimilco’s soil and pump it to other parts of Mexico City. It also revived worries about a process of decline, caused by pollution, urban encroachment and subsidence, that residents and experts fear may destroy the canals in a matter of years."

"The axolotl has disappeared from channels in Mexico City. No item have been found in months. This species of salamander inhabits the Xochimilco canals."

"Aztec legend has it that the first axolotl, the feathery-gilled salamander that once swarmed through the ancient lakes of this city, was a god who changed form to elude sacrifice. But what remains of its habitat today — a polluted network of canals choked with hungry fish imported from another continent — may prove to be an inescapable threat . . . The loss of this salamander in its habitat would extinguish one of the few natural links Mexicans still have with the city that the Aztecs built on islands in a network of vast mountain lakes. Its extinction in the wild could also erase clues for scientists studying its mystifying traits . . . Axolotls were once at the top of the food chain — eating insects, worms, crustaceans and even small fish — and their continued survival in the canals is a sign that the ecosystem of Xochimilco can endure as well."

"In 2006, the species was declared critically endangered due to habitat degradation and the pervasiveness of invasive fish in the lake, introduced decades ago in a well-intentioned attempt to create fisheries and alleviate food insecurity."

"In 1987 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO acknowledged the Chinampas landscape of Xochimilco as a World Heritage Site, which therefore constitutes a world heritage whose protection is under the charge of international society having the duty to cooperate with the Mexico state."

"African tilapia were introduced into Xochimilco in a misguided effort to create fisheries. They joined with Asian carp to dominate the ecosystem and eat the axolotl's eggs and compete with it for food."

"The rate of [axolotl] deterioration increased precipitously as Mexico City more than tripled in size between 1950 and 1975 . . . Rapid urbanization put an enormous burden on the water supply . . . By the early 1950s, Xochimilco no longer received inputs from springs and rivers. In a short period of time, the valley became an endorheic basin with very little water, and the chemistry of much of the available water became alkaline, salty, and polluted."

"It was their quietness that made me lean toward them fascinated the first time I saw the axolotls. Obscurely I seemed to understand their secret will, to abolish space and time with an indifferent immobility. I knew better later; the gill contraction, the tentative reckoning of the delicate feet on the stones, the abrupt swimming (some of them swim with a simple undulation of the body) proved to me that they were capable of escaping that mineral lethargy in which they spent whole hours. Above all else, their eyes obsessed me. In the standing tanks on either side of them, different fishes showed me the simple stupidity of their handsome eyes so similar to our own. The eyes of the axolotls spoke to me of the presence of a different life, of another way of seeing. Glueing my face to the glass (the guard would cough fussily once in a while), I tried to see better those diminutive golden points, that entrance to the infinitely slow and remote world of these rosy creatures. It was useless to tap with one finger on the glass directly in front of their faces; they never gave the least reaction. The golden eyes continued burning with their soft, terrible light; they continued looking at me from an unfathomable depth which made me dizzy."

"Axolotls entered laboratories when a French expedition shipped 34 of them to the Natural History Museum in Paris in 1863. Five males and one female were passed on to French zoologist Auguste Duméril, who managed to breed them with fantastic success. Duméril distributed axolotls to institutions and individuals all over Europe." This led to the distribution of axolotl's as laboratory animals and pets. Today, most of the axolotl populations can be traced to this shipment.

"In the year 1245 (according to the chronology of the Abbe Clavigero) they arrived at Chapoltepec. Harassed by the petty princes of Zaltocan . . . the Aztecs, to preserve their independence, withdrew to a groupe of small islands called Acocolco, situated toward the southern extremity of the lake of Tezcuco. There they lived for half a century in great want, compelled to feed on roots of aquatic plants, insects, and a problematical reptile called axolotl, which Mr.Cuvier looks upon to be the nympha of an unknown salamander."

"The Axolotl or Axolote, (y) is a great water-lizard of the Mexican lake. Its figure and appearance are ridiculous and disagreeable. It is commonly about eight inches long, but is sometimes to be sound of twice that length. The skin is soft and black, the head and tail long, the mouth large, and the tongue broad, thin, and cartilaginous. The body gradually diminishes in size, from the middle to the extremity of the tail. It swims with its four feet which resemble those of a frog."

"Hay unos animalejos en el agua que se llaman axolotl, (que) tienen la cola como lagar-titos, y tienen la cola como anguila, y el cuerpo tambien; tiene muy ancha la boca y barbasen el pesquezo. Es muy bueno de comer; es comida de los señores." There are some little animals in the water that are called axolótl, [that] have a tail like a lizard, and have the tail like an eel, and the body also; they have a very wide mouth andbeards in the neck. It is very good to eat; it is the food of lords.