Food web overlap among native axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) and two exotic fishes: carp (Cyprinus carpio) and tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Xochimilco, Mexico City

The importance of phenotypic diversity in conservation: Resilience of palmate newt morphotypes after fish removal in Larzac ponds (France)

“…Similar reports were also made for other families, such as facultatively paedomorphic ambystomatids in Northern America (Whiteman and Howard 1998). The most famous example is without any doubt the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), a nearly obligate paedomorphic species, which is now at the edge of extinction in the wild because of fish introductions and the destruction of its aquatic habitat (Contreras et al 2009;Zambrano et al 2010). …”

“…Thus, this provides the potential to maintain this unique example of intraspecific diversity in newts and salamanders. In addition to reports showing that paedomorphosis could be both locally or globally at the edge of extinction in some species (Whiteman and Howard 1998;Denoël et al 2005a;Valiente et al 2010;Zambrano et al 2010), the possibility of the reexpression or persistence of this alternative developmental process following fish eradication has important conservation implications. This shows the value of managing wetlands that have been historically inhabited by rare phenotypes such as paedomorphs, even when these have disappeared due to fish introductions.…”

Biology’s beloved amphibian — the axolotl — is racing towards extinction

“…dollars it might give the salamanders a window in which to re-establish themselves. His work has shown that axolotls are most vulnerable to carp when they are at the egg stage, and to tilapia when they are juveniles, but reveals that if they can grow beyond a certain size, they might still thrive 5 .…”

Fishes from the Tirimbina Biological Reserve, La Virgen de Sarapiquí, Heredia, Costa Rica

“…the dominance of swift waters over rocky bottoms with depths usually <1 m) could explain their absence in the sampled localities. Both Oreochromis and Pterygoplichthys/Hypostomus usually prefer calm waters, on sandy or muddy bottoms, steep edges, depths usually greater than 1 m, low concentrations of dissolved oxygen and presence of submerged and/or floating vegetation (Page and Robins 2006, Zambrano et al 2010, Wakida-Kusunoki and Amador-del Ángel 2011. Additional sampling and monitoring is necessary to corroborate this, and, in the case of confirm the presence of such (and another) exotic species in natural water bodies of the area, to assess their possible impacts on the native fauna.…”