A salamander that keeps its feathery external gills and lives in water as an adult.
It has a broad head, external gills behind the head and a fin along its swimming tail.
Wild Axolotls live in Xochimilco’s canals, where pollution and introduced carp and tilapia are threats. Chinampa-Refugio combines farming with habitat restoration.
UNAM teams and farmers install filters to improve water quality and exclude introduced fish. They monitor oxygen, food and other conditions in the refuges.
A 2024 report described 12 animals placed in three prepared refuges in October 2023. The controlled work used bamboo-and-mesh enclosures and compared health and body measurements before and after placement.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Pollution, wetland loss and introduced carp and tilapia threaten wild axolotls.
UNAM teams and Xochimilco farmers restore refuges with improved water quality and barriers to introduced fish, alongside controlled monitoring of animals placed there.