my animal behavior professor just emailed me this
He missed
Tag: axolotl
Just a note to the people saying they want one: these small friends are called axolotls and they’re currently critically endangered because of people taking them out of their natural habitat to be pets so like… don’t buy one please just leave these lil guys be
I have good news and bad news:
Bad news: these guys ARE critically endangered in the wild because they live in like, 2 lakes in Mexico that are eutrophic (fish can’t live because there’s so little oxygen because the plant life uses it all) and food production efforts (Mexico City was trying to feed its poor, and released a lot of hearty invasive species that ate all of them). They are basically extinct in the wild so you can’t actually get them out of their natural habitat. (There’s a lot of conservation effort though)
Good news: Axolotls are WILDLY important to scientists wrt their regenerative abilities, so breeding programs are super common, super popular, super easy bc axolotls don’t have a breeding season and fuck like champions, and if you really want an axolotl, you’re getting one that’s been bred in captivity and it’s really not going to hurt the wild population at all.
Oh okay that’s somewhat relieving
BITTERSWEET AND ADORABLE
Gay Ryan 