Capstone Post 5 – Answering My Main Inquiry Question

ANSWERING MAIN INQUIRY QUESTION

Why are Axolotls endangered and how can we help?

1.What is an Axolotl?

An Axolotl is a neotenic salamander. That means that an Axolotl spends its entire life in its larval state while still reaching maturity. An example of this is, that Axolotls grow legs and have the ability to reproduce, yet they spend their entire life in water. Although Axolotls live in water, they still grow legs like other salamanders. They also have lungs along with their external gills! It seems like these Axolotls really want all of the attention. As if that wasn’t enough, they also have amazing regenerative properties of which allow them to regenerate their own spinal cord, limbs, tail, and eyes. An Axolotl can grow to be as long as 12 inches, and weigh as much as 8 oz while still being healthy.

2.How do natural predators come into play?

Natural predators such as herons, other large birds, and fish have been slowly but surely chipping off of the Axolotls population within the past two decades. Everything was going great when the Axolotls only harm were the birds and native river fish but then Mexico’s government noticed that the fisherman weren’t getting much food and so they introduced some non-native fish such as, carp, tilapia into the canal to feed them. This might have appeared to be a good choice, but these fish reproduced faster than they could be caught.The canal is now filled to the brim with these fish. The tilapia fed on the plants of which the Axolotls lay their eggs on. This resulted in them either eating the eggs or not leaving the plants for the Axolotls to even lay the eggs. The carp did the same and sometimes even fed on the Axolotls.

 

3.How have humans contributed to the Axolotls endangerment?

Humans have been one of the largest contributors to the endangerment of Axolotls. We have contributed by water pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of non-native animals, and capturing them to sell as pets or even human consumption! We have polluted their habitat by tossing cans and bottles (and once even spilling oil) into their habitat. This is a large problem not only for the Axolotls but for the human population in that area too because this water is also used for human consumption. We have destroyed their habitat when we drained Lake Chalco due to fear of flooding the nearby community and also when we polluted Xochimilco with human waste. The government of Mexico introduced the carp and tilapia (fish from other continents, therefore the term non-native animals) which ended up eating the Axolotls, as stated previously. We are also constantly capturing them to sell as pets or lab specimens of which are kept behind glass. These creatures are then bred in a tank with no natural threat and tend to lose their instincts over time. They have even been used for food and medicine! It’s as though we have literally been searching for ways to harm them.

 

4.What has become of their habitat?

It might sound like all these have problems started recently, but a while ago Axolotls actually had two lakes that they had inhabited, Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco. A while after Axolotls began to flourish in Lake Chalco, the lake was drained do to fears of flooding, which never actually occurred. Their luck didn’t get any better from there. Their other habitat Xochimilco kept them safe and sound for many years. They had built up a healthy population in the canal, but it is now filled to the brim with invasive/non-native species of fish that were brought from other continents.The water is also is extremely polluted with human waste such as cans and plastic bags. Axolotls are now completely extinct in the wild.

 

5.How are people helping?

All of the above sounds like humans as a whole are not caring about what is happening, but that is not the case. In fact the International Union for Conservation of Nature (more commonly known as IUCN) has been raising awareness about the Axolotl since 2006 when they listed them as critically endangered. The Axolotls are actually protected under the category Pr (Special Protection) by the Government of Mexico. Another point is that if they are using the water in the canal for human consumption, anything that they do to help the Axolotls would have a positive effect on the humans living in the area as well, so there are many benefits to reducing pollution and improving the quality of the water. Fortunately this species tends to thrive in captivity and so they have a healthy population behind glass and many continue to breed them so that they do not go extinct any time soon.

MAIN INQUIRY

An Axolotl is a neotenic salamander. That means that an Axolotl spends its entire life in its larval state while still reaching maturity. An example of this is, Axolotls grow legs and have the ability to reproduce, yet they spend their entire life in water. Additionally, they have amazing regenerative properties of which allow them to “rebuild” their own spinal cord, limbs, tail, and eyes. You probably think that they’re awesome, right? Well, I bet you weren’t aware that they are critically endangered. My goal is to teach you about why Axolotls are endangered and how people are helping.

One contributor to the endangerment of the Axolotls are natural predators. Natural predators such as herons, other large birds, and fish have been slowly but surely chipping off of the Axolotls population within the past two decades. Although, they still held a healthy population, 2006 is when the big change came. A couple years before, the mexican government had introduced non-native fish such as carp and tilapia. These fish were meant to feed the community around them, but they reproduced faster than the fishermen could catch them and soon enough the canal was filled to the brim with these invasive fish. Even worse was that the diet of these fish included the plants of which Axolotls lay their eggs on and occasionally even Axolotls! In the year of 2006 IUCN (the international union for the conservation of nature) listed Axolotls as critically endangered.

Believe it or not, people were actually one of the largest reasons for Axolotls endangerment. We have done this in many ways. Some of these are pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of non-native animals, and capturing them to sell as pets or even human consumption.  We have polluted their habitat by tossing cans and bottles (and once even spilling oil) into their habitat. This is a large problem not only for the Axolotls but for the human population in that area too because this water is also what the people drink. We have destroyed their habitat when we drained Lake Chalco due to fear of flooding the nearby community and also when we polluted Xochimilco with human waste. A while ago Axolotls actually had two lakes that they had inhabited, Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco. A while after Axolotls began to flourish in Lake Chalco, the lake was drained do to fears of flooding, which never actually occurred. Their luck didn’t get any better from there. Their other habitat Xochimilco kept them safe and sound for many years. They had built up a healthy population in the canal, but it is now filled to the brim with invasive/non-native species of fish that were brought from other continents.The water is also is extremely polluted with human waste such as cans and plastic bags. The government of Mexico introduced the carp and tilapia which ended up eating the Axolotls. We are also constantly capturing them to sell as pets or lab specimens of which are kept behind glass. These creatures are then bred in a tank with no natural threat and tend to lose their instincts over time. Axolotls have even been used for food and medicine! It’s as though we have literally been searching for ways to harm them. Axolotls are now completely extinct in the wild.

All of the above sounds like humans as a whole are not caring about what is happening, but that is not the case. In fact the International Union for Conservation of Nature (more commonly known as IUCN) has been raising awareness about the Axolotl since 2006 when they listed them as critically endangered. The Axolotls are actually protected under the category Pr (Special Protection) by the Government of Mexico. Another point is that if they are using the water in the canal for human consumption, anything that they do to help the Axolotls would have a positive effect on the humans living in the area as well, so there are many benefits to reducing pollution and improving the quality of the water. Fortunately this species tends to thrive in captivity and so they have a healthy population behind glass and many continue to breed them so that they do not go extinct any time soon.

1 thought on “Capstone Post 5 – Answering My Main Inquiry Question

  1. Apollonia, you did a great job answering your main inquiry and sub-questions. It is quite clear that you did a lot of research. You put all of your information together in a very cohesive way while also engaging your reader with nice word choice and sentence variety. I am excited to see your TED talk!

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