Captive-bred axolotl thrives in restored wetlands in Mexico City

One of the world’s most endangered amphibians – strange, permanently smiling Mexican Exolotal – has flourished after release in artificial humid land, scientists have discovered.

In a study that provides hope for the long-term future of a creature that was pushed to the verge of extinction, scientists released 18 captive-bread exolotles in a restored and artificial wetlands.

Researchers fit the animals with radio trackers and found that they “survived successfully on both sites and survived” – even gaining weight.

Baja, the head researcher at the autonomous university, California, Dr. Alejandra Ramos said it was a “amazing result”.

Conclusions are published In Journal Plos One And they suggest, researchers say that exoltol can be brought back to its original habitat.

XOCHIMILCO water – shaped by traditional farming practices and flowed with spring water from the mountains – is used to Tem with amphibians.

But as the Mexico City increased, urbanization, pollution and other pressures pushed the exolotal to the verge of extinction, some estimates were suggested that there were less than 50 left in the wild.

“If we lose this species, we lose share of our Mexican identity,” the National University of Mexico co-Leid researcher Dr. Luis Zambrano said.

It is no exaggeration to call exoltol an icon. Aztech legend is that the creature is a god in the form of sea – the Aztec deity of fire and lightning, zolotal, disguised as a sea.

“If we can restore it (Wetland) residence and restore the population of exolotal in the city of over 20 million people,” Dr. Zambrano continued, “I think we expect humanity.”

To lay the foundation to release the animals, the researchers worked with a team of local farmers and volunteers, to make the Wetland “refuge” for the exolotes. They installed natural filtering systems to clean the water,

Scientists released their captive -nine animals on two sites – in a Xochimilco and in an ineligible mine, for decades, they have called “artificial wetlands”.

Each animal was tagged with a radio tracking device.

Dr. Ramos told BBC News, “The surprising news is that they all survived.” “And not only that, but the people we gained again, they had gained weight – so they are hunting.”

Monitoring also revealed the complicated insight into exolotal behavior. “We found that some people spend most of their time with another person – like they do these little friendship,” Dr. Ramos explained.

The irony is somewhat irony that these charismatic salmanders are found in hundreds of thousands of laboratories and pet aquariums in the world. The species is biologically attractive – it has a remarkable ability to recreate any part of its body that is damaged or lost. Therefore, research is going on to understand whether that ability can be medically exploited.

But in the Merky Wetlands of Mexico City, there is still a lot of work to clean and restore the residence and give wild exolotal a chance to recover.

“Many animals are losing their residence around the world,” Dr. Ramos said. “And restoration projects are not easy, but they can be done – they just need a lot of people.

“You don’t need to be a scientist to join – everyone in the world can help.”