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Girl, 10, finds rare Mexican axolotl under Welsh bridge
- codezero 5mo agoIt amazes me she chanced upon it at the right time and even knew exactly what it was.
- culi 5mo agoAxolotl's have become a global icon. First as an anti-colonial protest symbol for indigenous peoples. But now it's even a creature in Minecraft Edit: oh the article says as much > Axolotls as pets have seen a surge in popularity in recent years after they were introduced to video games such as Minecraft and Roblox. Also, the child seems quite familiar with the wildlife > She said Evie was "always finding things" like newts and bugs, but said the axolotl discovery was a surprise. What's even funnier is the mother's reaction who apparently didn't believe axolotl's were real > "I've been telling Evie all this time that those creatures she watches on YouTube, they're not real.
- kasey_junk 5mo agoI stopped trying to correct my kid about wildlife facts when he turned 5…
- codezero 5mo agoYeah, I didn't want to spoil the article with my comment, it was a good read, but it did immediately make sense why they were so popular now. I've met multiple people in passing who own Axolotl. I used to think I was super special that I met a guy who owned one, and I assumed it was because he was a famous neuroscientist, and had some special permission, but now they're relatively common as pets (to a degree).
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- MBCook 5mo ago> Experts have warned axolotls should never be bought on impulse as they can "very challenging" to look after. > This is because they have the same environmental, dietary and behavioural needs in captivity as they do in the wild. I thought this was just odd. Don’t most animals that aren’t heavily domesticated like that? I mean that’s true of most all pet fish, for example.
- macintux 5mo agoFrom another comment here: "you need to be able to keep the water below 24 Deg C, this means spending some money on chillers even in sub-tropical countries" I think people anticipate needing heaters for certain types of fish, but I'd never have expected to buy a cooling unit for aquatic life.
- quickthrowman 5mo agoYeah, adding in a chiller makes things way more complicated than just adding a resistive heater. A decent looking chiller for an aquarium is ~$1,000, plus you need temp sensors and control wiring to maintain the setpoint properly, and then you need to pray the electricity doesn’t go out. A 1/3rd HP chiller draws around 1kW including the circ pump
- fragmede 5mo agoAn aquarium backup battery for a simple pump is like $50 for something that'll last a few hours of outage, but for a chiller with that kind of draw, it's a bit more expensive.
- quickthrowman 5mo agoYeah, you’d need a 1500 VA UPS to back it up, plus a decent amount of batteries (I don’t know the math on those, someone else figures that part out for me haha) Aquarium circ pumps can probably be powered directly by 12VDC? That would make sense if it’s only $50 for battery backup.
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- psychoslave 5mo agoFirst time I learnt about it was while reading The Book of Barely Imagined Beings. Fantastic book.
- Levitating 5mo agoThey're also a symbol for asexuality, or at least they were where I grew up.
- culi 5mo agoIs this because of Yolanda, the ace axolotl, in the show BoJack Horseman?
- Suppafly 5mo ago>Axolotl's have become a global icon. Sure, but odds are that if you think you've seen an axolotl in the wild, it's far more likely to be a juvenile salamander or one of the other more populous species of salamanders exhibiting neoteny.
- mikestew 5mo agoSooo, if they are/were popular as pets, how come there's less than 1000 left worldwide? Those two facts don't reconcile for me.
- bombcar 5mo ago"in the wild" might be doing a lot of heavy lifting, or it may be based on subspecies or similar. I don't really expect to find endangered species at the local pet store.
- elzbardico 5mo agoWhy not. We found plenty of endagered species at zoos. They are endangered not only as a function of the number of species, but due to their vanishing environments.
- JaggedNZ 5mo agoI have three axolotl's in the next room, there are no subspecies to my knowledge, except maybe for some cross breeding with Salamanders in the US. They are common in scientific research as they have amazing regenerative abilities; they will often mistakenly bite each other's legs off as juveniles (they are not the smartest creatures) and then grow them back in a few weeks, good as new. They made it into the exotic pet trade and now they are quite common in captivity, but now critically endangered in the wild. There are attempts to breed and repopulate them, with some limited success. Another interesting thing, in many countries and states it is legal to keep an axolotl and illegal to keep a Salamander. They are actually fairly easy to keep in my experience, with two caveats. 1) you need to be able to keep the water below 24 Deg C, this means spending some money on chillers even in sub-tropical countries. 2) If you have a pair in the same tank (regardless of sexing) you need to be prepared to cull the eggs! (freeze them) Prices here went from ~$50NZ each down to around $10-15 each due to the Minecraft craze.
- Ifkaluva 5mo agoWhy are salamanders illegal?
- nom 5mo agoThis is so unlikely to happen. There is a good chance that they are not as rare as we currently think, at least in that particular area.
- culi 5mo agoThey are unique to like 2 lakes in Mexico. This is someone's pet that they dumped there. It would not have survived more than a week in Wales had it not been found.
- prmoustache 5mo agoThere were more than 2 lakes but the specy is almost extinct so these areas are where you can still find some.
- culi 5mo agoWell it's native to the Xochimilco "lake system". Sometimes its hard to say what's a different lake or not but it's the same system of lakes. They also used to be in Lake Chalco which at certain times of the year could connect into the same lake as Xochimilco. Regardless, it's always been a tiny range
- prmoustache 5mo agoMy understanding is they were in other mountainous areas as well in central Mexico but their habitat was much more reduced there so they went extinct even faster. one example: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382147531_Chronicle_of_an_extinction_foretold_the_case_of_the_axolotl_Ambystoma_velasci_in_Sierra_Gorda_de_Guanajuato https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382147531_Chronicle...
- culi 5mo agoThis paper is about the closely related Ambystoma velasci. The axolotl is Ambystoma mexicanum. They are closely related enough that there's some evidence of hybridization but they are separate species. A. velasci is not endangered.
- janalsncm 5mo agoIndeed, most axolotls in Wales are Welsh axolotls. But I do wonder how many do live in Wales. If it’s not just an abandoned pet that would be really interesting.
- codezero 5mo agoFrom the article it doesn't appear they've ever been found alive in the wild anywhere but their natural habitat. This was likely a remarkable chance happening where an owner released one and she found it within close succession or else it likely would have died very quickly. If there is a wild population, that would be an even more amazing story.
- OJFord 5mo agoI did think it was strange they didn't spell that out though. Maybe they thought 'Mexican' makes it clear, but it reads too easily like a species name.
- culi 5mo agoIt is absolutely an abandoned pet. They cannot survive outside the tropics. Hell, they can't even survive outside the 2 lakes in Mexico City that they're hyperadapted to There are less than 1,000 of them in the wild. Trust me if it was possible to establish a population somewhere else outside of captivity, scientists and conservationists would already be on it
- prmoustache 5mo agoExamples in the wild are - bar the possibility of an albino example - all dark skinned. The pink/light skinned ones are the results of mutations and ultimately selective breeding in the pet population.
- uoaei 5mo agoSo is it likely this one merely escaped? I find it hard to believe someone who would own one of these would not be an enthusiast, and that enthusiasts wouldn't find another owner for a critically endangered species rather than merely drop it under a local bridge.
- poolnoodle 5mo agoWhy not leave it in the wild? Now the poor thing has to stare at the inside of a bucket for the rest of its life.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- neuralkoi 5mo agoAs mentioned in the article, this was almost certainly someone's pet and dumped in the river when they couldn't take care of it anymore. Axolotls are endemic to Mexico.
- loloquwowndueo 5mo agoNot its natural habitat - it would probably die in winter Axolotls are somewhat popular as pets so I’m thinking someone got rid of theirs by tossing it in the river and the girl just happened to find it afterwards. Far more plausible explanation than “found in the wild 9000km and an ocean away from its place of origin”
- reactordev 5mo agoThey freeze and thaw like Iguanas do in Florida. They can’t survive prolonged cold temperatures but when it does get to 15c they stop moving.
- fortran77 5mo agoWhy did she name him Dippy and not a proper Welsh name like "Cadwaladr" or "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?"
- codezero 5mo agoI think her family was visiting Wales, rather than being natives :)
- renewiltord 5mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- wizzwizz4 5mo agoWales is a lot smaller than the continental United States. What do you expect them to say? "Cardiff is part of Wales, unceded territory of the Welsh"? That would be entirely performative. If you feel strongly about this topic, you ought to demand more meaningful steps, such as the use of Welsh language place names.
- renewiltord 5mo agoI just think they should acknowledge the native people whose land it is. It’s not performative unless you’re a MAGA fascist. It’s just considerate.
- wizzwizz4 5mo agoWhat form would such an acknowledgement take?
- ButlerianJihad 5mo ago
- markhahn 5mo ago[flagged]
- beeforpork 5mo agoAnd dont you pronounce that 'x' as 'ks'! It's pronounced as 'sh'! Just like in 'xocolatl'.
- Petersipoi 5mo agoI have a feeling you're fighting a losing battle here
- brunoborges 5mo agoEvery scientific battle is worth fighting for!
- psychoslave 5mo agoScientific study of languages generally admits that language drift eventually.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- whyenot 5mo agoWhat is scientific about this pronunciation? Axolotl is not the scientfic name (its Ambystoma mexicanum), and usually the goal with pronouncing scientific names is for the listener to be able to spell the name after hearing it (at least for botany, which is what I am familiar with).
- embedding-shape 5mo agoPrenounciation and correcting other's spelling is always a losing battle, probably for everyone involved.
- rezonant 5mo ago*Pronunciation
- standwportugul 5mo agoThe BBC paywall for US users is really a bummer
- shevy-java 5mo agoImagine if it were the other way around: Mexican axolotl, 10, finds rare Girl under Welsh bridge.
- nilslindemann 5mo agoAnd how we would react if it catched her and put her in a small cage.
- hibberl6 5mo agoThat would make her description in the article as a "young female" a little more fitting, at least.
- pinkmuffinere 5mo ago> I've been telling Evie all this time that those creatures she watches on YouTube, they're not real. This is a really strange side comment, lol. I guess the mom doesn’t believe in some animals?
- culi 5mo agoTo be fair, many people think Narwhals are a mythical creature. For good reason imo. They're fantastic
- IAmBroom 5mo agoNot so strange. I bought a puppet animal that seemed generic enough - the only animal type available at the magic store, and my girlfriend's boys declared "It's a coati!" She thought that they must have seen a fake animal on TV named that, but low and behold, google proved they were correct. It appeared to be a coati puppet.
- varispeed 5mo agoImagine axolotl husband now cries of missing wife.
- nilslindemann 5mo agoEven if you are an endangered species, humans wont leave you alone.
- motbus3 5mo agoThese damn mexican immigrants are everywhere! Just kidding. I love you mexican folks, just couldn't miss the joke
- analog8374 5mo agowell good thing she was 10
- beeandapenguin 5mo agoFun fact: Axolotl have the largest animal genome ever sequenced with ~32b base pairs, 10x more than humans.
- pkphilip 5mo agoAmazing to see all of the things kids have been finding these days! Middle schooler finds coin from Troy in Berlin https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/75848 https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/75848 ‘It Had Teeth’: A 3-Year-Old Discovers Ancient Treasure in Israel While on a hike with her family, a child stumbled across a 3,800-year-old Egyptian amulet. It will go on display in an upcoming exhibition. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/world/middleeast/child-ancient-discovery-israel.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/world/middleeast/child-an... Sarah Huckabee Sanders' kids scream with excitement after finding 2,000-year-old coins in West Bank cave https://www.foxnews.com/travel/sarah-huckabee-sanders-kids-scream-excitement-unearthing-2000-year-old-treasure-west-bank-cave https://www.foxnews.com/travel/sarah-huckabee-sanders-kids-s...
- pidgeon_lover 5mo ago> "This is a quite a unique situation, and I think the young female has a keen eye to actually spot it," [Chris Newman, director of the National Centre for Reptile Welfare, said] What an odd thing to say.
- nsvd2 5mo agoWhy so? It seems both things are true.
- paintbox 5mo agoI believe the odd part is "young female" phrasing. And I agree, it is odd.
- 4gotunameagain 5mo agoI agree that it is odd, but it is unfortunately a natural consequence of the dilution of the term woman to include people in their 50s that up until yesterday were men. We need a new term, kind of like how Thailand is handling the situation for so long. It is clear that there cannot be just two genders.
- IAmBroom 5mo agoAnd naturally an article about a misplaced house pet summons commentary on transgender rights.
- abejfehr 5mo agoI don’t know how they know it’s an axolotl and not a newt larva. If it’s the latter it’ll be very jarring when it changes forms later
- cl3misch 5mo agoHave you looked at the article? The specimen would be quite huge for a newt larva, no?