The rickety rowboat has been traveling for about half an hour through Xochimilco, a precolonial borough in southern Mexico City, past canals, ditches and meadows when it docks at a small strip of land. Vegetables are grown on this chinampa, a strip of farmland originating back in the Aztec era, more than 500 years ago. In a shallow ditch, work is underway to protect an authentic inhabitant of this place: the Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), an endangered freshwater salamander found only in the 25-square-kilometer (9.6-square-mile) ecological park that is part of the neighborhood. Those who navigate through the still waters here can hardly imagine that about 20 minutes away lies Mexico’s bustling capital. As far as the eye can see, farmland lies surrounded by human-made ditches. Herons stand frozen still along the shore; ducks swim through the water with their offspring. Several times, a farmer passes along, in a wooden sloop, his hat against the burning sun, pushing his boat forward with a long pole. It’s a lush, serene environment where scientists work to preserve a cultural symbol, endangered by habitat loss, invasive species and loss of water quality. Researchers from the UNAM walk over a chinampa in Xochimilco towards one of the axolotl refuges. Image by Boris van der Spek for Mongabay. Vivian Crespo and Paula Cervantes, researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), get out of the boat and walk to the ditch, where just above the surface the top of a large, square cage made…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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