These Adorable Amphibians are Getting a Helping Hand From Scientists
Here’s some welcome news for the cute but critically endangered axolotl salamander aka Mexican walking fish. As NPR reports, scientists have been delighted to find how well captive-bred amphibians have fared after being released from captivity into the wild, as an April 2025 study from researchers at the Autonomous University of Baja California reveals.
More About These Iconic ‘Smiling’ Salamanders
These unique salamanders, named after Xolotl, the Aztec god of fire and lightning, whom legend saw to be a god in salamander form, are native to the lakes of Mexico’s capital.
As Mongabay points out, axolotls retain their juvenile features into adulthood, a rare trait known as neoteny, which contributes to their cute reputation, with features such as their wide eyes, feathery gills and smile-shaped mouth. Their smiling expressions, cartoonish appearance and distinctive coloring have since earned them a worldwide fanbase. This was boosted when Minecraft added them to its game, following the Central Bank’s decision to print them on the 50-peso bill, leading to “axolotlmania!” as AP reports.
Axolotls are also a favorite among medical researchers for their biologically fascinating ability to regenerate any limbs or organs that are damaged.
Despite their popularity, however, they are on the red list of species considered critically endangered with an estimated 50-1,000 mature axolotls estimated to be left in the wild in 2019. The waters of Lake Xochimilco, and the Xochimilco Mexico City borough that it is found in, are shaped by traditional, pre-Hispanic farming practices. Flushed with spring water from the mountains, they once teemed with these amphibians, as the BBC details.
That axolotls were pushed to the brink of extinction is due to habitat loss due to urbanization, environmental change linked to pollution and global warming, as well as overfishing and threats from invasive species, as The Cool Down reports.
Paradoxically, these charismatic amphibians are found in pet aquariums and laboratories around the world in their thousands, but much work remains to restore and purify the murky waters of their natural habitats to give wild axolotls the chance to recover.
Reintroducing Axlotols Into the Wild
Preparations prior to the release involved the researchers working with local farmers and volunteers to create wetland “refuges”. They also installed natural filtering systems to clean the water.
As the researchers detail in their study, they monitored nine female, and nine male axolotls that they released over two aquatic locations in southern Mexico City in 2017 and 2018, one in Xochimilco, and one at a nearby disused quarry that over decades, has become what they call an “artificial wetland”.
They fitted the animals with radio trackers that found them to be successfully foraging at both sites.
As lead researcher, Alexandra Ramos reveals, they learnt that these captive-bred salamanders, reintroduced to the restored wetlands offering ideal conditions for them, are showing real powers of adaptability. In case you’re wondering, this is very significant because animals in captivity lose a lot of their natural behaviors: “Like, they don’t know how to recognize a predator, they don’t know how to catch prey, and so we were a bit nervous when we released them because we didn’t know if they were going to be able to survive,” Ramos tells NPR.
Thriving Not Just Surviving!
Not only did these cute axolotls survive in their new wild homes, they were found to be thriving. As Ramos shares, those they recaptured had gained weight, a sign that they were flourishing. And as she put it “They were hunting, they were eating, and they were avoiding predators. So this was really big.” This is so meaningful too, as these special creatures are felt by Mexicans to be part of their culture and history, she explains.
The monitoring also revealed some intriguing insights into axolotl behavior. “We found that some spend most of their time with one other individual – like they make these little friendships,” Ramos shares with the BBC.
This research has inspired hope in conservationists looking to reestablish wild, endangered populations. That axolotls, pushed to the brink of extinction, can survive in man-made habitats that seek to reverse the damaging effects of habitat destruction and climate change is also reason for optimism. On this buoyant feeling, the BBC quotes co-lead researcher, Dr Luis Zambrano: “If we can restore this [wetland] habitat and restore the axolotl’s population in a city of more than 20 million people,” Dr Zambrano continued, “I feel that we have hope for humanity.”
