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Biology’s beloved amphibian — the axolotl — is racing towards extinction

Although abundant in captivity, the salamander has nearly disappeared from its natural habitat, and that’s a problem.
  1. Erik Vance

    1. Erik Vance is a freelance journalist in Mexico City.

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When biologist Luis Zambrano began his career in the late 1990s, he pictured himself working miles from civilization, maybe discovering new species in some hidden corner of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Instead, in 2003, he found himself counting amphibians in the polluted, murky canals of Mexico City’s Xochimilco district. The job had its advantages: he was working minutes from his home and studying the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), a national icon in Mexico and arguably the world’s most recognizable salamander. But in that first year, Zambrano couldn’t wait for it to be over.

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Nature 551, 286-289 (2017)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-05921-w

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 15 December 2017: A quote in the original version of this article implied that animals obtained directly from the University of Kentucky have a high rate of malformations. This is not the case. The text has been adjusted to clarify the origins of observed irregularities.

References

  1. Voss, S. R., Woodcock, M. R. & Zambrano, L. BioScience 65, 1134–1140 (2015).

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