Girl, 10, finds rare Mexican axolotl under Welsh bridge

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ccodezero about 4 hours ago 88 commentsRead Article on bbc.com

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beeforpork•about 3 hours ago

And dont you pronounce that 'x' as 'ks'! It's pronounced as 'sh'! Just like in 'xocolatl'.

Petersipoi•about 3 hours ago

I have a feeling you're fighting a losing battle here

TeMPOraL•2 minutes ago

That one is ancient history. My 6yo is currently fighting her friends and their parents alike to make them realize and learn that there is an "L" at the end - it's "axolotl", not "axolot".

embedding-shape•about 1 hour ago

Prenounciation and correcting other's spelling is always a losing battle, probably for everyone involved.

rezonant•about 1 hour ago

*Pronunciation

brunoborges•about 3 hours ago

Every scientific battle is worth fighting for!

psychoslave•about 3 hours ago

Scientific study of languages generally admits that language drift eventually.

whyenot•about 2 hours ago

What is scientific about this pronunciation? Axolotl is not the scientfic name (its Ambystoma mexicanum), and usually the goal with pronouncing scientific names is for the listener to be able to spell the name after hearing it (at least for botany, which is what I am familiar with).

prmoustache•about 1 hour ago

Well most non nahuatl speaking mexicans simply call them by the spanish traduction, ajolote.

pif•27 minutes ago

If you want it to be pronounced "sh", just write it "sh".

foldr•7 minutes ago

They wanted it to be pronounced 'x', so they wrote it 'x': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl_orthography

pants2•about 2 hours ago

And "valet" is supposed to rhyme with "ballot" not "ballet" but you'll still sound like an idiot if you say "take your car to the val-it"

aksss•about 1 hour ago

Drink some clarit with the valit over a good filit.

bananzamba•about 2 hours ago

Or like Meshico

contingencies•18 minutes ago

Given the damage to the abdomen, we might infer it was axed a little.

mc32•about 2 hours ago

That’s like telling the Japanese that “cutlet” is not pronounced “katsu.” It ain’t gonna change. Or even having southerners pronounce squirrel with two sellable [autocorrect : syllables] Good luck with that!

anticorporate•about 1 hour ago

> two sellable

I'm a southerner and we generally have squirrels in plentiful quantities, so it's never occurred to me to sell them. /s

pkaeding•14 minutes ago

Mepps buys the tails, they make fishing lures from them: https://www.mepps.com/squirrel-tail/

fluoridation•about 3 hours ago

"Shocolate"? Who says it like that?

patall•about 2 hours ago

People speaking languages other than English.

fluoridation•about 2 hours ago

We're speaking English, so why even entertain the idea of pronouncing "axolotl" differently, in that case? The Japanese say "en", but that doesn't seem to inspire anyone else not to say "yen".

bromuro•about 2 hours ago

Not really - it is [t͡ʃ] (“ch”) not [ʃ] (“sh”).

jkestner•about 3 hours ago

Any self-respecting Aztecophile. They're also the cause of startup names dropping a vowl. Insufferable.

janalsncm•about 3 hours ago

Indeed, most axolotls in Wales are Welsh axolotls.

But I do wonder how many do live in Wales. If it’s not just an abandoned pet that would be really interesting.

codezero•about 3 hours ago

From the article it doesn't appear they've ever been found alive in the wild anywhere but their natural habitat. This was likely a remarkable chance happening where an owner released one and she found it within close succession or else it likely would have died very quickly.

If there is a wild population, that would be an even more amazing story.

mikestew•about 4 hours ago

Sooo, if they are/were popular as pets, how come there's less than 1000 left worldwide? Those two facts don't reconcile for me.

culi•about 4 hours ago

1000 wild ones. There's much more in captivity than in the wild.

They evolved to be quite dependent on the unique agricultural islands in the Valley of Mexico called Chinampas. These were drained by the colonizers. Which is why Mexico City is now facing a severe water crisis and also why these creatures are endangered

bombcar•about 4 hours ago

"in the wild" might be doing a lot of heavy lifting, or it may be based on subspecies or similar.

I don't really expect to find endangered species at the local pet store.

JaggedNZ•about 3 hours ago

I have three axolotl's in the next room, there are no subspecies to my knowledge, except maybe for some cross breeding with Salamanders in the US.

They are common in scientific research as they have amazing regenerative abilities; they will often mistakenly bite each other's legs off as juveniles (they are not the smartest creatures) and then grow them back in a few weeks, good as new. They made it into the exotic pet trade and now they are quite common in captivity, but now critically endangered in the wild. There are attempts to breed and repopulate them, with some limited success.

Another interesting thing, in many countries and states it is legal to keep an axolotl and illegal to keep a Salamander.

They are actually fairly easy to keep in my experience, with two caveats. 1) you need to be able to keep the water below 24 Deg C, this means spending some money on chillers even in sub-tropical countries. 2) If you have a pair in the same tank (regardless of sexing) you need to be prepared to cull the eggs! (freeze them) Prices here went from ~$50NZ each down to around $10-15 each due to the Minecraft craze.

elzbardico•about 3 hours ago

Why not. We found plenty of endagered species at zoos. They are endangered not only as a function of the number of species, but due to their vanishing environments.

liveoneggs•about 3 hours ago

the pet ones are almostly entirely captive bred so they are pretty distinct by now

codezero•about 4 hours ago

It amazes me she chanced upon it at the right time and even knew exactly what it was.

culi•about 4 hours ago

Axolotl's have become a global icon. First as an anti-colonial protest symbol for indigenous peoples. But now it's even a creature in Minecraft

Edit: oh the article says as much

> Axolotls as pets have seen a surge in popularity in recent years after they were introduced to video games such as Minecraft and Roblox.

Also, the child seems quite familiar with the wildlife

> She said Evie was "always finding things" like newts and bugs, but said the axolotl discovery was a surprise.

What's even funnier is the mother's reaction who apparently didn't believe axolotl's were real

> "I've been telling Evie all this time that those creatures she watches on YouTube, they're not real.

codezero•about 3 hours ago

Yeah, I didn't want to spoil the article with my comment, it was a good read, but it did immediately make sense why they were so popular now. I've met multiple people in passing who own Axolotl. I used to think I was super special that I met a guy who owned one, and I assumed it was because he was a famous neuroscientist, and had some special permission, but now they're relatively common as pets (to a degree).

kasey_junk•about 4 hours ago

I stopped trying to correct my kid about wildlife facts when he turned 5…

poolnoodle•about 3 hours ago

Why not leave it in the wild? Now the poor thing has to stare at the inside of a bucket for the rest of its life.

loloquwowndueo•about 3 hours ago

Not its natural habitat - it would probably die in winter

Axolotls are somewhat popular as pets so I’m thinking someone got rid of theirs by tossing it in the river and the girl just happened to find it afterwards.

Far more plausible explanation than “found in the wild 9000km and an ocean away from its place of origin”

reactordev•about 3 hours ago

They freeze and thaw like Iguanas do in Florida. They can’t survive prolonged cold temperatures but when it does get to 15c they stop moving.

oidar•about 3 hours ago

It's against the law for it to be in the wild. And the temperature range in which it can survive is quite narrow, it would probably die sometime this year if left alone.

neuralkoi•about 3 hours ago

As mentioned in the article, this was almost certainly someone's pet and dumped in the river when they couldn't take care of it anymore. Axolotls are endemic to Mexico.

fortran77•about 3 hours ago

Why did she name him Dippy and not a proper Welsh name like "Cadwaladr" or "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?"

codezero•about 3 hours ago

I think her family was visiting Wales, rather than being natives :)

standwportugul•about 3 hours ago

The BBC paywall for US users is really a bummer

shevy-java•about 2 hours ago

Imagine if it were the other way around:

Mexican axolotl, 10, finds rare Girl under Welsh bridge.

nilslindemann•25 minutes ago

And how we would react if it catched her and put her in a small cage.

nom•about 4 hours ago

This is so unlikely to happen. There is a good chance that they are not as rare as we currently think, at least in that particular area.

culi•about 4 hours ago

They are unique to like 2 lakes in Mexico. This is someone's pet that they dumped there. It would not have survived more than a week in Britain had it not been found.

codezero•about 3 hours ago

I think it likely speaks to how much more common they are as exotic pets than they have been in the past. That she found it before it died is surprising, and the longer I think about this story the longer I wonder if they just bought it as a pet and the river discovery was a gag for online clout.