[LINK] "Mystical amphibian venerated by Aztecs nears extinction"

[rfmcdonald]

I saw axolotls once in the Toronto Zoo. How sad it is if they go extinct in the wild, as this Al Jazeera article suggests.

The Mexican salamander is found only in its original habitat, Xochimilco. The area contains the last remnants of a system of lakes and canals upon which the Aztec capital thrived. But Xochimilco is now a UNESCO World Heritage site at risk of being swallowed by massive urbanization and pollution in this sprawling capital of 22 million people.

The Aztecs venerated the axolotl as a god, the twin brother of their most important deity, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl. Axolotls have been depicted throughout the ages in Mexico, from archaeological sites to modern art. In Diego Rivera’s mural “Water, Origin of Life” (1951), an axolotl swims near a male figure’s genitals — symbolically at the center of creation.

Having the rare amphibian capacity to grow into adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis, the axolotl lives in an eternal adolescent stage. It can regenerate limbs and organs — even parts of its heart and brain — which makes it a valuable case study for scientists all over the world.

[. . .]

A recent study from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) shows in 1998 there were 6,000 axolotls per square kilometer in Xochimilco. By 2008 that figure had plummeted to 100. And in 2014 researchers found less than one per square kilometer.

There are at least three major causes for its decline: urbanization, water pollution and the massive invasion of exotic predator fish like carp and tilapia, introduced by the Mexican government in the 1980s to help feed local communities. From the first few thousands they introduced, there are now an estimated 900 tons of fish in these canals.