A young axolotl swimming inside a plastic container at an experimental canal in Mexico City. Photo: Dario Lopez-Mills/APA young axolotl swimming inside a plastic container at an experimental canal in Mexico City. Photo: Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

The salamander-like axolotl apparently has not disappeared from its only known natural habitat in Mexico City’s few remaining lakes.

Researchers say they have sighted, but not caught, two of the slippery little creatures during a second effort to find them.

A weeks-long effort last year by researchers in skiffs trying to net axolotls in the shallow, muddy waters of Xochimilco lake found none, raising fears that they might only now survive in captivity.

But biologist Armando Tovar Garza of Mexico’s National Autonomous University said that members of the team carrying out the search had seen two axolotls during the first three weeks of a second survey expected to conclude in April.

The creature is import in scientific research because of its ability to regenerate severed limbs

“We weren’t able to capture them... because the behaviour of the axolotl makes them very difficult to capture,” he said.

“We haven’t had any captures, but we have had two sightings. That’s important, because it tells us we still have a chance.”

The axolotl, admittedly ugly with a slimy tail, plumage-like gills and mouth that curls into an odd smile, is known as the “water monster” and the “Mexican walking fish”.

Its only natural habitat is the Xochimilco network of lakes and canals – but the “floating gardens” of earth piled on reed mats that the Aztecs built to grow crops are now suffering from pollution, urban sprawl and invasive species.

The creature is import in scientific research because of its ability to regenerate severed limbs.

Some axolotls still survive in aquariums, water tanks and research labs.

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