Axolotl
CONSERVATION STATUS:
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED
Axolotl Facts
Fun Facts!
*Axolotls can regrow any body part including their head or heart!!
*Axolotls keeps their extenal gills for life.
*They have no eyelids.
*Axolotls are amphibians.
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Ambystoma mexicanum
LIFE SPAN:
up to 15 years
SIZE:
WEIGHT:
8 pounds
DIET:
The axolotl is carnivorous, meaning that it eats mainly meat. It eats mainly insects, worms, crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish. Axolotls have also been known to eat other salamanders and other small animals that they can fit in their mouths.
PReDATORS:
The biggest predator to the axolotl are birds like herons and storks. Large fish that enter the lakes and channels have also attacked and eaten axolotls.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
The axolotl ranges in size from 6 inches to 18 inches. They have wide heads and their eyes do not have eyelids. Axolotls have gills behind their heads so that they can get oxygen from the water. The gills are on the outside of their bodies and are covered with red filaments that help increase oxygen consumption. Four gill slits are also hidden behind the external gills and help bring in more oxygen from the water. Axolotls can be four different colors; brown, pink, golden, or grey. Axolotls are normally brown or tan in the wild.
BEHAVIOR:
Axolotls are solitary, meaning that they live by themselves. They can be active at any time during the day and will communicate with visual or chemical cues if they come across another axolotl. They also use their vision and chemical cues to discover prey in the wild. Axolotls have the ability to regrow limbs! If some part of their body is severed or damaged, an axolotl will regrow the limb to its original size and shape. They can even regrow parts of their spinal cord and their brain.
THREATS:
Habitat loss is the main threat to the survival of the wild axolotl population. The axolotl only lives in one lake (Lake Xochimilco) in Mexico, and the expansion of Mexico City has polluted the water and has made the axolotl more prone to being killed by predators. In the 1990s, around 6000 axolotls were left in the wild. Today, only around 1200 are left, leaving the axolotl to be critically endangered.
How can you Help?
Learn all you can about the Aoxolotls and spread the word to others.
Fight pollution in natural waterways especially around salamander habitats.
