Mexico: this breeder is trying to save axolotls from extinction

Brut America

This mexican creature can regenerate and resist cancer, some even say it was an Aztec god. But today, the axolotl is on the verge of extinction. Here is how this man is trying to save them.

Transcript

00:00For me, the Ajolote represents an opportunity to give something back to nature.

00:15The Ajolote is in danger of extinction,

00:17more than anything because of the lack of education of the population in general, of Mexico City.

00:23Throwing garbage is one of the main dangers,

00:27because all the garbage that one throws in the street,

00:30will give to the canals, which is the habitat of the Ajolote.

00:41My project was born about three years ago,

00:44and was born as a result of being able to raise one of these specimens.

00:50When people saw that I was actually doing it well,

00:55or that I had that ability and that patience,

00:58some breeders here in Xochimilco invited me to learn it, to get to know it a little more.

01:05My purpose is to re-educate the population of Xochimilco.

01:11To re-educate in the sense of helping them and informing them why the species is so valuable,

01:16why the habitat is so valuable, why it is important to take care of the planet.

01:34My part of protecting it, preserving it, is to generate similar or more similar conditions to its habitat.

01:41I like to generate ponds in which the stress is minimal,

01:45the ability to reproduce is greater,

01:49because they don't have direct contact with me, I'm not really bothering them.

01:54So that's my way of preserving them, letting them be Ajolotes.

01:59There are few spaces and few ecological reserves in the city,

02:03where one can release an animal from these,

02:06because there are many predators, there is not a very good quality of water,

02:11so if we released an Ajolote in the canal, it would surely die.

02:25It is said that the Ajolote was a god,

02:28who had to be sacrificed by his brothers to give life to a new cycle,

02:33so he refused to be sacrificed.

02:36He fled, hid in the cornfields,

02:39and that's where his gills were left in the shape of a penis,

02:43and that's where he chose to throw himself into the canal.

02:46This story is what we know here in Xochimilco,

02:49and we have been taught since we were little.

02:51Many children are no longer taught.

02:53It's not that they don't want to share it,

02:56it's just that sometimes they get lost because they want to give more information about modernity.

03:01Modernity and the past are not fought in any sense.

03:04Knowing where we come from gives us a better perspective of where we are going,

03:09and knowing our history gives us a better vision.

03:13That's why we shouldn't lose this knowledge.

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