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This is no world for an axolotl

Despite the creatures’ regenerative abilities, scientists are no longer finding them in their natural habitat of Xochimilco, Mexico City due to invasive species, pollution, tourism and climate change

No, the usual trio of culprits are to blame: habitat destruction (lands once occupied by vegetable gardens in Xochimilco are now the site of urban development and soccer fields), worsening water quality (which has steadily declined due to the presence of treatment plants and plastic waste in the canals) and finally, climate change, which has led to higher temperatures. Bathtubs in UNAM’s axolotl lab, where the creatures are bred and their behavior in captivity studied.Daniel Ochoa de OlzaUNAM’s fundraising efforts go to support the chinampas, the vegetable gardens that the Indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico have been building since the pre-Hispanic era in the middle of the waterways by driving stakes into the water, forming walls that are then filled with mud and seeded. The UNAM team is spreading awareness among chinamperos of the viability of techniques like those that Sumano has employed, such as surrounding gardens with a small ditch that prevents the access of tilapias, but that allows water to flow from the central canal, apt for the reproduction of axolotls and opening the door to their Xochimilco renaissance.

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