Axolotl

Common Name:

Axolotls

Scientific Name:

Ambystoma mexicanum

Type:

Amphibians

Diet:

Carnivore

Average Life Span In The Wild:

10 to 15 years

Size:

Up to 12 inches

Weight:

2.11 to 8 ounces

Size relative to a teacup:

IUCN Red List Status: ?

Critically endangered

LC

NT

VU

EN

CR

EW

EX

Least Concern Extinct

Current Population Trend:

Decreasing

What is an axolotl?

According to legend, the axolotl is the Aztec god of fire and lightning, Xolotl, who disguised himself as a salamander to avoid being sacrificed. But these amphibians are impressive enough on their own.

Axolotls (pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhl) can regenerate lost limbs and have a life cycle that allows them to stay “young” their whole lives, a phenomenon called neoteny.

Their youthful traits include feathery gills sprouting from their heads like a mane, webbed feet, a dorsal fin that runs down the length of their body, and a tail.

Though they keep these external gills, adults also have functional lungs and can breathe through their skin. And as if being forever-babies didn’t make them cute enough, they wear a permanent Mona Lisa smile.

A popular oddity

These cute critters have long fascinated the public, even more so when they were first brought from Mexico to Paris in 1864. Europeans across the continent began breeding them. That began a robust pet trade in the animals, which breed easily in captivity. 

In the wild, they’re mostly grayish-brown in color. Lighter colored specimens, especially those with white bodies and pink gills, are usually bred as pets.

Yet in most countries, axolotls cannot be traded across international borders, partly because of poaching concerns.

They’re illegal to own in some parts of the United States for the same reason. Some are also concerned that they may escape captivity and interbreed with native salamanders.

Thanks to their regenerative abilities, axolotls are a common research subject for biologists. They can regrow lost or damaged limbs, hearts, spinal cords, and even parts of their brains—all without permanent scarring.

Since scarring prevents tissue from regenerating, finding out how and why axolotls don’t scar could unlock human’s ability to regenerate tissue. One study deciphered how the axolotl’s molecules communicate to promote regeneration.

A 2025 study may have cracked the code. A particular enzyme and gene work with retinoic acid to grow the right body part in the right spot.

(Scientists may have found the key to amphibian regeneration.)

Axolotl reproduction and behavior

Axolotls are solitary creatures, but they reach sexual maturity at a year old. Their spawning season in the wild is in February. Males seek out females, possibly using pheromones, and perform a courtship “hula” dance. He shakes his tail and lower body. She responds by nudging him with her snout.

The male then deposits spermatophores, or sperm packets, on the lake floor, which the female picks up with her cloaca, a body cavity, and fertilizes her eggs.

Females can lay up to a thousand eggs (though the average is about 300) on plant material or rocks, which protects them from predators. After two weeks, they hatch and, with no parental care, the larvae are off and swimming on their own.

There’s a theory for why axolotls don’t change appearance as adults. Because their native lakes never dry up, as is the case for many other water bodies, axolotls didn’t have to trade in their aquatic traits, such as a tadpole-like tail, for terrestrial ones, such as legs.

(Axolotls and capybaras are TikTok famous—and that could be a problem.)

Axolotl habitat and diet

These lentic amphibians live and breed in Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco, located just south of Mexico City. During the day, axolotls hide from predators by burrowing in the mud or hanging out among aquatic plants.

They become active at night, when their sweet little smiles quickly turn into vacuum cleaners. Axolotls suck in their prey, which includes crustaceans, mollusks, insect eggs, and small fish. They may also suck up gravel, which can help grind up the food in their belly.

Conservation and threats

An assessment by the International Union for the Conservation of Species found that only 50 to a thousand axolotls are left in the wild. And their numbers are dropping.

They once inhabited the high-altitude lakes around Mexico City, but habitat degradation has limited them to a few inland canals in the area.

Further habitat loss from tourism and residential housing development, in addition to agricultural and industrial pollution, have drastically reduced the axolotl population. So has the introduction of tilapia and other invasive fish species, which eat baby salamanders and compete with adults for food.

The Mexican government, as well as many nonprofits, are trying to save Mexican axolotls, in part by restoring parts of their freshwater natural habitat and offering ecotourism for people to see the quirky salamanders in the wild.

For instance, Luis Zambrano, a leading axolotl researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is working with scientists and farmers to create chinampas, floating islands made of water plants, logs, and lake mud that help filter the polluted water.

Some travel companies offer tours of these gardens, whose proceeds support axolotl conservation efforts in the area. 

(Here’s how farmers and scientists are saving the axolotl in Mexico City.)

Fascinating facts about axolotls

• The axolotl genome is the second longest in the animal kingdom, with 32 billion base pairs. That’s 10 times as long as the human genome. —Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Newly hatched axolotls, hungry for their first meal, will sometimes snack on their siblings’ limbs. They grow back, after all. —Northeastern University
• The word “axolotl” is thought to roughly translate to “water monster” in the ancient Aztec language Nahuatl. —American Museum of Natural History

(Learn how Mexican nuns are helping to save axolotls.)