In Search of the Last Wild Axolotls

axolotls are critically endangered. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, these aquatic monsters—a national symbol that features on Mexico’s 50 peso bills, and which were once considered divine entities, the “twins” of the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl—are at “extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.” The figures tell it best. In 1998 there were 6,000 axolotls per square kilometer in their natural habitat, the district of Xochimilco in the south of Mexico City. By 2004, that figure had fallen to just 1,000, and by 2008 it was only 100. A 2014 census of Mexico’s wild axolotl population found only 36 of the creatures. Now, a decade later, a new survey is underway. Xochimilco is home to the remnants of a vast canal network built by the Aztecs, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though the district is facing ecological deterioration as a result of increasing urbanization. Everything indicates that for the axolotl, the countdown to extinction continues. But there is one ... Read full article.