Ecologists at Mexico's National Autonomous University revived a fundraising initiative dubbed Adoptaxolotl, to support efforts to conserve axolotls, a native, endangered species of salamander that resembles a fish, on Friday the 24th of November.
Adoptaxolotl is an initiative that allows anyone to electronically adopt one of the tiny "water monsters" for just 600 pesos, or around $35. You can get real-time health information on your axolotl through virtual adoption. Donors can also purchase a virtual meal for one of the animals, for less money.
Scientists organising the fundraising state that in just twenty years, the population density of the Mexican axolotl has decreased by 99.5% in its primary habitat. Nearly all of Mexico's 18 axolotl species remain critically endangered, with expanding water pollution, a deadly amphibian fungal infection, and foreign rainbow trout posing threats.
According to Luis Zambrano, a biologist researching axolotls, determined that scientists could formerly locate 6,000 axolotls on average per square kilometre in Mexico, but there are less than 35 now. A newer international investigation discovered that there are less than 1,000 Mexican axolotls remaining in the wild today.
However, despite only a few hundred individuals being left in the wild, tens of thousands of axolotls can be found in captivity, such as in aquariums. Richard Griffiths, an ecologist at The University of Kent, who collaborated with Zambrano, described the axolotl's situation as a "complete conservation paradox", adding that the axolotl was "probably the most widely distributed amphibian around the world" but "yet almost extinct in the wild."
This may have more of an impact on human society than one might assume at a first glance. Axolotls can uniquely regenerate severed limbs, making them a significant lab model for studying tissue development and degradation. However, after centuries of nepotism, they have become susceptible to disease. With the decline in population of the axolotl, scientists miss out on learning so much about this fascinating animal, as there is a massive loss of genetic diversity from this.
