axolotl – News Stories About axolotl - Page 1

In Mexico City, Scientists Hunt
for an Endangered Creature

Aug 12, 2025 1:46 PM CDT

In Mexico City, Scientists Hunt for an Endangered Creature

Researchers scour water for hints of DNA from axolotls, a large salamander

(Newser) - Sixty years ago, residents of a canal-crossed borough in Mexico City could pluck axolotls—the large salamander reminiscent of a tiny dragon—out of the water with their hands because they were so plentiful. Now it's almost impossible to find them in the wild. That's why scientists from...

Ecologists Want People to
'Adopt' These 'Water Monsters'

Dec 2, 2023 4:10 PM CST

Ecologists Want People to 'Adopt' These 'Water Monsters'

Mexican researchers launch fundraiser to bolster conservation for endangered axolotl

(Newser) - Ecologists from Mexico's National Autonomous University last week relaunched a fundraising campaign to bolster conservation efforts for axolotls, an iconic, endangered fishlike type of salamander. The campaign, called "Adoptaxolotl," asks people for as little as 600 pesos (about $35) to virtually adopt one of the tiny "...

New Zealand Animal Shelters
Inundated With Axolotls

Oct 17, 2022 2:48 PM CDT

New Zealand Animal Shelters Inundated With Axolotls

One shelter alone has about 2,000 of the amphibians in its care

(Newser) - You’re not likely to find a wild axolotl in its native Mexico, where the endangered amphibians are known as "walking fish." However, per the Guardian , you won't have much trouble finding one in New Zealand, where one animal rescue in the small city of Dunedin took...

Mexico's Missing
'Water Monster'
Resurfaces

Feb 24, 2014 7:30 AM CST

Mexico's Missing 'Water Monster' Resurfaces

Scientists had feared for axolotls' survival, but spot 2 in the wild

(Newser) - So they're not extinct , but don't get out the confetti just yet: Mexican researchers have finally managed to find a few axolotls—slimy "water monsters" akin to salamanders—in their natural habitat around Mexico City. But their numbers aren't exactly overwhelming: "We haven't had...

Biologists Can't
Find Mexico's
'Water Monster'

Biologists Can't Find Mexico's 'Water Monster'

Leading to fears the axolotl has gone extinct in nature

(Newser) - The disappearance of a "water monster" sounds like a good thing—but in this case, it's not. The salamander-like axolotl has but a single habitat, the Xochimilco network of lakes and canals in Mexico, and researchers spent four months in skiffs trying to net the "water monster"...