MEXICO CITY — Leonidas Otlica Reyes is tormented by the drought experienced in Río Frío de Juárez, a city located in the state of Mexico, where a year ago the rains decreased to the point that the streams turned into swampy puddles that cross the dry land.
“Right now we have a big problem due to the lack of rain. There is no water. There is a huge shortage,” said Otlica Reyes, a 46-year-old waitress who has been part of the Río Frío Conservation Group since 2016. , an association focused on environmental protection.
For Otlica Reyes, the most worrying thing is not only the serious effects of the lack of rain on the region’s crops, but also the threat looming over the axolotl volcano (Ambystoma leorae), an amphibian in critical danger of extinction. It gets its name from its habitat near the Telapón and Tláloc volcanoes, in the mountainous enclave known as the Sierra Nevada, east of Mexico City. In this area are the Tula and Río Frío streams, the only places where this species of axolotl grows.
“We had never felt this heat, nor had we seen this drought,” said a despondent Otlica Reyes in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. “There is no precipitation in the river. We don’t have any of that and right now that’s the biggest danger we have for axolotls.”
Axolotls belong to the genus Ambistoma and they are a species of neotenic salamander, which means that these animals maintain some juvenile characteristics throughout their reproductive life.
Felipe Osuna López, academic at the Colegio de la Frontera Sur and member of the Río Frío Conservation Group, said that axolotls are of great importance in the ecosystem because they are the main predator in the streams and help maintain the biological balance in the area.
“They are a bioindicator par excellence; they keep the invertebrate population away and thus contribute to maintaining water quality”, explained Osuna López. “If the axolotls are well, it means that the water bodies are in good condition and this guarantees the water supply for thousands of people in neighboring communities.”
Axolotls live in rivers and streams, so the characteristics of these habitats determined their evolution. This made them very vulnerable to changes in these bodies of water, said Osuna López. This has caused a notable decline in its population due to factors related to habitat modification, such as river pollution, according to one report. 2018 study by the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.
Osuna López, together with Otlica Reyes and others, launched a fundraising campaign to save the axolotls that languish and die in the region’s water bodies. According to their estimates, there are less than 200 specimens of this species remaining in the region’s streams.
“For the first time this dry season, the water stopped flowing in the Tula Creek and became stagnant, so the axolotls clung to survival,” said Osuna López. “Fortunately we were able to detect it in time and we took on the task of relocating the axolotls to areas with better conditions.”
The axolotl population has increased in number, according to Osuna López. “The bad thing is that in Tula, where we had the largest population, the lack of monitoring and presence meant that these weather attacks were not detected in time and the population was reduced,” he said.
O latest figures from the National Water Commission (Conagua) show that the lack of rain is a national problem: 67.97% of the Mexican territory has moderate to exceptional drought, which affects ecosystems and generated a 60% increase in forest fires.
In the case of volcanic axolotls, the campaign launched by the Río Frío Conservation Group seeks to raise 65 thousand Mexican pesos (around US$3,900) for monitoring work, maintenance of water bodies and educational campaigns with the community, among other activities.
“This is a reactive strategy to overcome this dry season and help the axolotls. We are relocating them, monitoring them and maintaining the pool levels so that they are able to survive,” said Osuna López. “In the medium term we need to restore, as far as possible, these streams so that they can retain a greater amount of water.”
‘Part of our identity’
The Mexican axolotl has great importance in the country’s culture dating back to pre-Hispanic times. The Aztecs viewed the axolotl as a manifestation of Xolotl, the twin god associated with death and transformation.
“The axolotl appears for the first time in pre-Hispanic codices and is associated with Aztec deities. The axolotl was Quetzalcoatl’s twin brother and this is how he is represented in mythology. Culturally, this amphibian is part of our identity,” said Diana Vázquez Mendoza, researcher at the Ecological Restoration Laboratory at the Institute of Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The gender Ambistoma is composed of 33 species distributed throughout North America, from southwestern Alaska and southern Canada to the Mexican Highlands. According to data from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resourcesin the case of Mexico, there are 17 species distributed in the northeast and center of the country.
Of this total, 16 are endemic, as is the case with specimens of Ambystoma leorae, better known as the axolotl volcano, and the Ambystoma mexicanum, which are the best-known axolotls and are found in Xochimilco, an area south of Mexico City known for its network of canals that surround agricultural areas called chinampas.
The volcano’s axolotl species is much smaller than, for example, the Xochimilco axolotl, according to Osuna López. “Our species measures on average around 15 centimeters from snout to tail. And it presents a great morphological variation. We have gray, black, brown, yellow. We had greens, even with reddish tones, but unfortunately they have now been lost,” she said.
Vázquez Mendoza said that axolotls, being amphibians, “are very delicate animals and very sensitive to environmental changes due to the type of skin they have and their morphology. ecosystems at the local level”.
The researcher explained that the axolotls of Xochimilco are also in danger due to the urbanization of areas close to their habitats, changes in environmental conditions and the pollution of canals and other wetlands where the species thrives.
For Otlica Reyes, what happens to the axolotls is not an isolated event, he said with concern. Communities need to be continually aware so that they can mobilize and protect their local flora and fauna.
“It’s not a problem for the axolotls, but for the entire community, both people and other living beings,” he said. “We all need water, but right now the axolotls are really missing it.”
An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
