Axolotl

Field profile

The axolotl is a mole salamander that keeps its larval body plan for life, retaining feathery external gills and a finned tail while becoming sexually mature. It reaches roughly 20 to 30 centimetres and lives in a single shrinking canal system near Mexico City. Enormous captive and laboratory populations exist alongside a wild population that surveys now count in the low hundreds per square kilometre or fewer.