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'Water Monster' About to Die Off

Mexican salamander suffers in polluted canals and lagoons

By Laurel Jorgensen,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 2, 2008 6:18 PM CST
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(Newser) – Mexico’s “water monster"—a mere foot long but once central to the Aztec legend and diet—is close to dying out, the AP reports. Axolotls have long endured in the polluted Venice-like canals of Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, but baby-gobbling fish and ebbing water quality are killing them off. Scientists are in a rush to save them, but can't agree on how.

The salamanders currently thrive in laboratories, where scientists marvel at their ability to regenerate lost limbs; they have been crucial to studies of embryology and evolution. Their extinction, says a biologist, “would not only be a great loss to biodiversity but to Mexican culture." A local fisherman is more specific: "I used to love axolotl tamales," he says with a laugh.

A mural painted by graffiti artists called Colectivo Axolotl is seen near Xochimilco Lake in Mexico City, Wednesday Oct. 8, 2008.
A mural painted by graffiti artists called "Colectivo Axolotl" is seen near Xochimilco Lake in Mexico City, Wednesday Oct. 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
An Axolotl salamander, or Ambystoma mexicanum, swims in a tank at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Sept. 27, 2008.
An Axolotl salamander, or Ambystoma mexicanum, swims in a tank at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Sept. 27, 2008.   (AP Photo)
An Axolotl salamander swims in a tank at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Sept. 27, 2008. Scientists warn that the roughly foot-long amphibian is just a few years away from extinction.
An Axolotl salamander swims in a tank at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Sept. 27, 2008. Scientists warn that the roughly foot-long amphibian is just a few years away from extinction.   (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Roberto Altamirano, a villager working with scientists of the UNAM National University, casts a net in search of Axolotl salamanders in Mexico City.
Roberto Altamirano, a villager working with scientists of the UNAM National University, casts a net in search of Axolotl salamanders in Mexico City.   (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
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More about the 'Mexican walking fish'
axolotl.org

Green • World

 
endangered species • Mexico City • Mexico • Aztec • salamanders • scientific research • International Union for Conservation of Nature

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