Mexico City's 'water monster' nears extinction

[wolfsburgfanatic]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081102/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_water_monster

Not really earth shattering news to anyone familiar with axolotls, but its nice to at least see some notice being given by science and the media. In ten years the native population has dropped from 1,500 per square mile to only about 25 per square mile Hope they figure something out, but its probably way too late already.

Thank god for captive breeding

 

[Jfitz]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081102/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_water_monster

Not really earth shattering news to anyone familiar with axolotls, but its nice to at least see some notice being given by science and the media. In ten years the native population has dropped from 1,500 per square mile to only about 25 per square mile Hope they figure something out, but its probably way too late already.

Thank god for captive breeding

haha captive breeding
the only problem is after they are captive bread they are harder to put back in nature...

 

[andyjs]

Yeah, usually a species goes extinct in the wild, there's little chance of seeing it there again, but we wont be running out of axolotls any time soon

 

[coura]

Captive breeding rocks Just imagen what would happen if somebody didnt thougth of bringing them into captivity in the first place

 

[chrisngo]

Read this earlier. Glad you posted this. Hope these don't go extinct, but it's probably likely.

Chris

 

[loconorc]

You realize the axolotls in captivity have got to be rediculously inbred... Theyre lab animals.

 

[andyjs]

You realize the axolotls in captivity have got to be rediculously inbred... Theyre lab animals.

That's how some of the morphs were created, yes, but now they are kept privately by many people who hopefully breed them more responsibly

 

[Dan F]

I'm not surprised, not much habitat left with 20,000,000+ human residents (about 15,000/square mile!).

The short story "Axolotl" by Julio Cortazar is a must for any Axolotl fans out there.