Mexico’s axolotl “water monster” may have disappeared

Photograph by LoKiLeCh

Mexico’s axolotl, or “walking fish”, may have vanished from its natural habitat in Mexico City’s lakes system.

The axolotl, sometimes described as a “water monster” due to its ugly appearance is only found in the wild in the Xochimilco network of lakes feeding on aquatic insects, small fish and crustaceans. However, pollution and urban sprawl has caused the creature’s numbers to dwindle, with numbers falling from 6,000 per square kilometre in 1998 to 100 per square kilometre in 2008.

Now researchers fear that it may have become extinct after a four month search of the muddy waters found no axolotls at all.

Some axolotls remain in research labs and aquariums around the world, but such populations are problematic because of issues with breeding.