r/Awwducational 10d ago

Verified The Lake Pátzcuaro salamander is only found in a single lake in Mexico, with an estimated population of less than 100 left in the wild. A close relative of the axolotl, this salamander also retains many of its larval traits into adulthood — but it can still grow up to 35 cm (13.8 in) long.

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u/IdyllicSafeguard 10d ago

What do you get when you combine a rare salamander, a disappearing lake, some Dominican nuns, and cough syrup? (This isn't a lead-in to a joke, I promise). You get the strange story of Lake Pátzcuaro salamander.

This rare salamander is endemic to a single lake (Lake Pátzcuaro), in the western Mexican state of Michoacán. While the lake is the third largest in Mexico — some 130 km² (81 mi²) — the entire range of the species is thought to fall within an area of just 10 km² (3.8 mi²).

The Lake Pátzcuaro salamander is a relative of the more famous axolotl (both are in the genus Ambystoma), and like the axolotl, it also exhibits neoteny — it becomes sexually mature while still retaining most of their larval traits, such as a flattened tail and external, frilly gills. The Lake Pátzcuaro salamander also retains its superpower-like regenerative abilities, easily able to heal tissues and regrow entire limbs.

Unfortunately, this salamander's regenerative abilities have also made it attractive to humans hoping to share in its "eternal youth" — mostly via consumption. Such as the local P’urhépecha people, who have traditionally made the salamander into a soup.

At the same time, the P’urhépecha have long worshipped this salamander as a twin to the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl — seemingly their version of the Aztec god Xolotl, typically associated with the axolotl.

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u/IdyllicSafeguard 10d ago

In the nearby city of Pátzcuaro, a convent of Dominican nuns heard about the salamander's (dubious) "medicinal properties", and saw an opportunity for a business venture. They cooked the salamanders down into a syrup that they claimed could cure coughs, asthma, and anaemia. It sold so well that it became the convent's main source of income and, more than a hundred years later, they still sell this (very questionable) cough syrup — a bottle costs 200 pesos (about $10) today.

Meanwhile, the population of wild salamanders began to plummet. Untreated sewage oozed into the lake, and invasive carp ate salamander tadpoles and eggs while proliferating ectoparasites infested their gills. Fishermen killed salamanders in droves — 20 tonnes were fished annually In the 1980s. And the lake itself is now disappearing through a combination of deforestation, drought, and illegal water extraction (which have reduced the lake's volume by half since authorities began keeping track).

Fortunately, the salamander-syrup-making nuns noticed the decline in wild salamanders. Instead of raising salamanders solely for cough syrup, they began to breed and raise a captive population for the purposes of conservation. Today they work with experts at Michoacán University and the UK's Chester Zoo to maintain the world's largest population of these salamanders inside their convent, where two large rooms are packed with aquariums which hold around 300 salamanders.

The wild population, however, hasn't fared well. While some estimates place the population at 100 individuals, a few studies suggest that Lake Pátzcuaro might already be devoid of its salamanders. The species is considered 'critically endangered' — one of the rarest amphibians in the world.

With both devotion and expertise, the unconventional partnership between faith and science can hopefully keep the species alive until re-establishment into the wild is possible.

You can learn more about the Lake Pátzcuaro salamander, its convoluted history with humans and its prospects for the future (as well as other "Peter Pan" salamanders) on my website here!

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u/RandomRedditUser1337 9d ago

What a great story and cool little amphibian!

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u/IdyllicSafeguard 9d ago

One of the weirder conservation stories, I think. Thanks for reading (:

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u/One_Kaleidoscope_749 10d ago

And here's me thinking it looks like Toothless from How to Train a Dragon 😅

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u/VirtualBrick2 6d ago

I had a pet Axolotl when I was younger called Toothless!

Loved that lil dude, he had a massive tank and I'd just watch him for ages lol

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u/BethV114 6d ago

That is a wild plot twist

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