Hope Emerges for Endangered Axolotls with New Conservation Efforts

Axolotls are unusual aquatic salamanders with feathery, external gills and permanent, infantile smiles. Despite their reintroduction success, they are under severe perilous circumstances, the survival of which remain in the wild. These fascinating animals were great successes in their own environment. Today they float on the precipice of extinction, with the most recent estimates indicating that just 50 to 1,000 Axolotls survive in nature. The shocking drop is primarily attributed to loss of their natural wetlands. This problem is acute all over the world but especially in Mexico, where these species are endemic to only one lake.

To halt this downward trend, scientists have launched a major new conservation experiment. To monitor their movements and behaviors in these newly restored habitats, they surgically implanted transmitters into 18 captive-bred Axolotls. We even released 10 Axolotls into a restored canal known as a chinampa. Plus, we released 8 of them into an artificial wetland that was engineered for their rehabilitation.

Every released Axolotl survived the experiment, a hopeful step in the right direction for the species’ future. Remarkably, three of the recaptured Axolotls grew to such an extent that they almost doubled in mass. This remarkable rise demonstrates that their novel environments promote efficient predation and enable Axolotls to thrive. This weight gain suggests not only that the reintroduction was successful but that the artificial environments provided suitable conditions for the creatures.

Researchers pointed out that Axolotls prefer cooler environments, their activity levels peaking at 16° Celsius. Understanding this information is fundamental. Most importantly, it guarantees that all future habitat restoration projects accommodate the natural proclivities of these amphibians.

The team’s overall mission is still very much centered on improving the quality of habitat for Axolotls living in the wild. Reintroduction of captive-bred Axolotls is a secondary strategy if reestablishing habitat does not work out to be enough. By putting these environmental challenges at the forefront, researchers hope to pave the way toward a more sustainable future for this critically endangered species.