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Where Do Axolotls Live And Why Do They Look So Strange?

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) fell into mythology centuries ago; the Aztecs believed that the first axolotl appeared in the lake system around modern day Mexico City when the powerful underworld god Xolotl transformed himself into a small, feathery amphibian to escape capture.

Among the first modern zoo animals, 34 axolotls were brought from Mexico (along with three deer and three wild dogs) to the "Jardin zoologique d'acclimatation" in Paris in 1864. But where do axolotls live today, and why do they look so alien to us?

Where Do Axolotls Live?

Axolotls are a large, threatened species of salamander that live in fresh water — specifically in Lake Xochimilco in the southern part of Mexico City. Also, while they're sometimes called "Mexican walking fish," they're amphibians, not fish at all.

What Do Axolotls Look Like?

In the wild they are most often dark brown or black with speckles, but leucitic or albino variants are common, and you often see them as pets.

With their round heads and permanently smiling faces, wild axolotls are cute (it's one of the reasons they do well in the pet trade). One reason for the cuteness overload is neoteny, which is the retention of juvenile features throughout adult life.

For instance, although adult axolotls also have functional lungs like other amphibians and can breathe through their skin, they have big, fluffy external gills — something other amphibians don't keep after babyhood.

They have small, delicate webbed feet and a long, tadpole-like tail crested with a translucent fin because they don't have to rely on their webbed feet and legs for land travel, but they have to be able to move through the water like a big tadpole.

Stable Habitat, Stable Features

Scientists think they stay baby-like throughout their lifespans because, unlike other salamander species, the wild axolotl population evolved in very stable habitats. Other salamanders species, such as the tiger salamander, live in wetlands that dry up during certain parts of the year, so they have to get rid of their feathery gills and breathe through functional lungs and through their skin.

Wild axolotls evolved in a habitat with year-round water and with very few aquatic predators, so they didn't need to spend energy changing their bodies to suit their changing circumstances.

An axolotl, such as this speckled leucistic axolotl, can live very happily in captivity for as long as 15 years, but for only about five or six years in the wild. Axolotlowner/shutterstock The Axolotl's Life Cycle

An axolotl's life span is about 15 years in captivity but a wild axolotl probably lives only five or six years. They reach sexual maturity at one year, and though they're solitary creatures for the most part, in February, breeding season begins and wild axolotl males begin finding females using pheromones.

When they get together, the male does a courtship dance in which he shakes his tail in her direction. After the female acquiesces, she pokes him with her nose and he deposits a sperm packet on the lake floor, which she picks up and uses to fertilize her eggs.

The female wild axolotl will lay hundreds of eggs in the weeds or around some rocks and then leave them to fend for themselves; baby axolotls receive zero parental care.

In fact, baby axolotls, hungry after hatching from their eggs, have been observed gnawing on their siblings' legs and tails for sustenance. As you'll see, this is totally fine, because the legs will just grow back later.

Pink Predators

In their home ecosystem, axolotls are — or at least used to be — top predators around the lakes, wetlands and canals of central Mexico. They're unusual among amphibians because they remain underwater for their entire lives, breathing through feathery gills, while most other salamander species walk around on land and breathe with lungs during the adult stage of life.

Although they appear unassuming, they're actually ruthless carnivores, feasting on worms, mollusks, insects, insect larvae and even small fish in the wild.

Regenerative Abilities

Part of the Aztec mythology of the axolotl centers around the fact that, like a powerful god, they are difficult to kill. An axolotl can regenerate virtually any body part it loses, no problem. While some lizards can grow back a tail, bisected flatworms can grow back their other half and starfish can regrow a limb, an axolotl can regrow practically any part of its body in a few weeks.

"Of the animals that are closest to us — the vertebrates — salamanders are the only ones that can regenerate in this way, and can heal without scars," said David Gardiner, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, when we talked to him in 2019. "Other salamanders can regenerate, but axolotls do it best."

When the Europeans got wind of axolotl regeneration, axolotls went from being a zoo exhibit to one of the most important and longest self-sustaining lab animals in history.

Georges Cuvier, popularly considered the Father of Paleontology, studied axolotls in an attempt to figure out whether Carl Linnaeus was correct in categorizing the classes Amphibia and Reptilia separately. Cuvier concluded that axolotls, because they breathe through gills their entire lives, must be some sort of lizard that existed as a perpetual larva — in the words of paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, a "sexually mature tadpole." (Cuvier was correct sometimes, but not in this case.)

Because axolotls did incredibly well in laboratory and aquarium settings, 19th-century zoologist Auguste Duméril took it upon himself to provide every lab in Europe with a supply of axolotls, which resulted in some truly horrific studies in which scientists chopped up lab axolotls just to test the limits of their regenerative powers.

Scientific Studies Surrounding Axolotls

Scientists are interested in axolotls because they hope to figure out how to one day apply its miraculous new limb regeneration abilities to the human body. Axolotls can regenerate limbs, heart tissue, eyes and even its spinal cord and parts of its brain, and make new neurons throughout their lives, which human brains do, too, although not as readily.

"These days, axolotls are hugely important model systems for our studies about regeneration," said Gardiner. "We've known for decades — centuries, even — that we can remove parts of a developing embryonic structure and the cells that are left behind will fill in, repair and regenerate that structure. But in most animals — mammals, for instance — the system sort of shuts down at the end of embryonic development. Axolotls and other salamanders seem to be able to revert back to that embryonic-like state, reaccessing the developmental program that's already there. Humans have the program, we just stop being able to access it when we're no longer an embryo. You could say we, like axolotls, have evolved the ability to regenerate just fine, but we've also evolved a mechanism that inhibits that."

It's possible to force an axolotl to metamorphose into an adult salamander without gills by injecting it with iodine or thyroxine, or by feeding it foods that are rich in iodine. However, scientists have found that after they have metamorphosed they don't easily regenerate cells.

The Dangers Facing Wild Axolotl Populations

Wild axolotls might be godlike in their evolved ability to reaccess embryonic instructions to regenerate organs and limbs — captive axolotls might even be able to endure living in a nasty 19th-century aquarium or lab, cut up into little pieces — but what they're not able to endure is their home ecosystem being overrun with introduced predators, environmental toxins and habitat loss.

The lakes in their home around ultra-urbanized Mexico City have become not only polluted by aging wastewater systems, but overrun by invasive fish species like tilapia and perch, both of which axolotls eat with gusto. All of this has left axolotls endangered.

Conservation Efforts

The Mexican government and many axolotl conservation groups all over Mexico are doing their best to save the threatened salamander species by restoring the lakes and natural habitats they live in.

One strategy is to make stationary floating island habitats for them called chinampas — rafts made of aquatic vegetation, mud and wood that were used in ancient Mesoamerican culture as floating gardens.

Hundreds of years ago when the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan stood in the place of Mexico City, the Aztecs built and farmed on a vast network of chinampas for miles around the capital city. This system of agriculture created canals that were shallow and sheltered, and where the axolotl population thrived.

When the European conquistadors arrived in 1519, they destroyed the Aztec civilization, removed the chinampas and drained the canals and lakes.

Now, the natural habitat of the wild axolotl population is limited to Lake Xochimilco. People are working to remove the invasive species threatening the axolotls' habitat eat the axolotls and begin using chinampas-based agriculture in Lake Xochimilco because the aquatic vegetation of chinampas not only provides habitat for the axolotls, it filter toxins out of the lake water.

Ecotourism of these chinampas has assisted in funding axolotl conservation efforts.

Captive Axolotl Populations

While the wild axolotl population is not doing well, captive populations are doing great. They're the most widely distributed amphibian in the world.

Because scientists desperately want to figure out how to help you regenerate a new set of toes, millions of them live in labs around the globe — millions more, in fact, than live in the wild. And while axolotl research is important in science, captive populations of pet axolotls are also popular in Japan, a country where you can also get axolotls as a deep-fried snack in some restaurants.

Important Notes for Pet Owners

It's not legal everywhere for pet owners to keep a pet axolotl, so it's important to check your local exotic pet laws before you get one. Because they're completely aquatic, it's important to fill the tank completely with water — a 15- to 20-gallon (57- to 151-liter) tank is best.

Much like a small fish, you never pick up or handle an axolotl, and you should never house them with another pet — a fish or another axolotl — because they won't get along with anybody.

However, if you follow those few basic rules, you'll find them relatively hardy and easy to care for. Obviously, you should be very mindful of how you treat any critically endangered species.

Now That's Interesting

The axolotl genome is the second-largest of any animal yet sequenced. The lungfish genome is the largest animal genome ever sequenced.

Original article: Where Do Axolotls Live and Why Do They Look So Strange?

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Capybaras Are The New Axolotls

Where someone with years of hard-won personal experience, and lots of trial and error, shares everything they've learned. Read more here.

Photo-Illustration: Strategist; Photo: Retailer

Before axolotls were everywhere, the "It" stuffed animal was a sloth, and before that it was a llama, and before that it was a narwhal. Now there's a new kid in town: the capybara.

The South American rodents are furry, stout, and cartoonishly oversize — adults weigh more than 100 pounds — but also remarkably friendly and chill. They've been steadily rising in stature. Encanto featured a scene-stealing capybara, back in 2021, that still gets love online. There is a viral capybara song, hugely popular TikToks of capybaras soaking and eating giant yuzu in Japanese onsens, and countless memes and GIFs. (My husband is a fourth-grade teacher and says one of his students this year was so obsessed that they regularly used capybara GIFs in class presentations.) Taylor Moore, a social-media manager for the San Diego Zoo, told the newsletter Link in Bio that in addition to posts about elephants, the zoo's posts about capybaras get the highest engagement. And now toymakers are obviously taking notice: Jellycat, known for its nontraditional stuffed animals and its influence in the toy world (the staff of the Strategist last year could not get enough of this jaunty stuffed shrimp), recently released Clyde Capybara. And a capybara from Pusheen that has a cat and a yuzu on its back was so popular it sold out two days after it launched on June 25. (You can sign up for back-in-stock notifications on the product page.)

The path from meme to mass market to status stuffie requires a very specific recipe. Like the axolotl, the animal must have a name that's fun to say; bonus points if it's also hard to spell. It has to be cute and funny and a little bit ugly — jolie laide, if you will. Capybaras check all these boxes, plus they are cuddly and have cute personalities in real life. They are smart, social herbivores that like to swim and are often kept as pets, like an irresistible mix between a corgi, a hippo, and a pony.

"The weirder it is, the more kids tend to gravitate toward it," says Alexis Bobbitt, owner of the Park Slope toy store Little Green and parent of a 4-year-old son who is obsessed with capybaras. Bobbitt told me that when kids of all ages come into her shop, they seem to prefer the offbeat stuffed animals she carries over the traditional bunnies, dogs, and cats. And what's weirder than a 100-pound rodent who loves a spa day? Below are my favorite capybara toys available to buy right now. And if you notice any other especially oddball stuffies, consider adding them to your cart too — based on insider intel, if I had to bet on what might show up in toy stores come 2026, the blobfish and a specific type of long-fingered lemur called an Aye Aye are solid contenders.

Buy at Build-A-Bear Workshop

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Rescued Axolotls Find New Home At San Francisco Zoo

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Five rescued Axolotls are now living at the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens and on exhibit in the Conservation Corridor.

The Axolotls were confiscated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officers as they were being smuggled into the United States. The SF Zoo stepped up to provide a safe environment for the Axolotls and to educate the public about illegal wildlife trafficking.

"We have the right medical and animal teams in place to ensure they can thrive in their new environment," said Dominick Dorsa, the zoo's vice president of animal care.

"Axolotls, pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhls, are unique looking salamanders, native to Mexico," zoo officials wrote.

External gills resembling a feathery head piece add to the animals' unique cuteness. "The Axolotl is the Peter Pan of salamanders. While most amphibians grow out of their aquatic phase to begin their lives on land, the axolotl largely retains its larval characteristics and spends its adult life in the water," World Wildlife Fund wrote.

A rescued Axolotl is seen. (Photo courtesy San Francisco Zoo & Gardens)

Demand for Axolotls as pets boomed as consumers were "drawn to their big eyes and smiling expression," WWF wrote.

Axolotls were historically found in high-altitude lakes near Mexico City. Habitat destruction and pollution reduced the species to small areas around Lake Xochimilco. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, fewer than 100 adult axolotls are left in the wild.

San Francisco's panda project moves forward

Illegal smuggling fueled by the exotic animal trade also threatens the species. "Wildlife trafficking is a conservation crisis, with countless animals and plants being pushed toward extinction from the illegal harvest of and trade in live plants and animals," San Francisco Zoo officials wrote.

The San Francisco Zoo & Gardens is officially recognized by the Wildlife Confiscations Network as meeting the expectations of providing a cooperative and coordinated response for the care and wellbeing of wildlife confiscated from illegal trade.

Zoo guests will have the opportunity to name two of the Axolotls on Saturday and Sunday, June 15 and 16.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.

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