Amusing Amphibian
This is apparently Mexico’s most famous, and most reclusive, celebrity. The Ambystoma mexicanum, or axolotl, has lived a quiet life in the dark waters of Xochimilco since before the Aztecs established an empire. With a sludgy-brown, gelatinous body, this salamander species seems destined for a life of watery obscurity.
Yet the axolotl has become an improbable global superstar.
The Aztecs named it after Xolotl, their god of fire and lightning. Its divine status changed with the arrival of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century, who considered the strange-looking being — four fingers, five toes, funny gills — to be a creature that God created on an off day.
So the comeback of the axolotl has been a few centuries in the making.
Scientists marvel at their weird and wonderful attributes. Although the axolotl is a species of salamander, it remains in a state of perpetual tadpolehood, never losing its gills to become a full-time land-dweller. Most unique is its ability to regenerate. If an axolotl loses a limb, it grows the whole thing back; it can even rebuild lost parts of brain tissue. Like Peter Pan.In 1999 Pokémon introduced an axolotl-based character called Wooper. Slowly, the axolotl seeped into Western popular culture. Wildlife documentaries came first. Then the main character in How to Train Your Dragon, one of the biggest films of 2010, was modelled on one. Fortnite, a video game, added Axo, an axolotl, in 2020.
The event that turned the animal into a household name came in 2021, when Minecraft, a video game played by over 100m players every month, added the axolotl to the ranks of its digital characters. The axolotl, which gives players regenerative powers if they capture it, embodies the Minecraft-cute aesthetic.
Fame has its pitfalls, however. Conservationists are wary of the Nemo effect: Disney’s blockbuster, Finding Nemo, sparked a mania for pet clownfish in 2003, but did little to protect the animal’s habitat.
The race is on to save the axolotl in its natural habitat. It is already as popular as the mythical unicorn. The next few years will determine whether it becomes as rare.
While exploring this tadpole-hole, I came across what is perhaps the axolotl’s most famous pop-culture appearance in Mad magazine in 1958. It featured in a poem that went thus (with apologies to Wordsworth):
I wandered lonely as a clod
Just picking up old rags and bottles
When onward on my way I plod, I saw a host of axolotls
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
A sight to make a man’s blood freeze.
Behold The Hippopotamus
The axolotl made a collective comeback but 2024 had a megastar in Moo Deng, a moist, ungovernable hippo that combines the aesthetic of an avocado with the willpower of a toddler — and a name that means ‘bouncy pork’. This female pygmy hippo was born at the Khao Kheow Zoo in Central Thailand in July 2024. Six months on, she remains a viral sensation.
The pigmy hippo is an endangered species with about 2500 left in the wild — they are shy and native to West Africa; they belong to the genus choeropsis (which, I learn, is ancient Greek for looks like a pig). Hence the reference to pork in its name.
But what makes Moo Deng so special? I don’t know — she has a kind of oomph, not dissimilar from the axolotl. Digging deeper, I think she’s loved because she is herself at all times in a way that humans envy. Videos of her resisting being washed or moved show her open-mouthed as if screaming in primal protest (and the mouth of a hippo – even a pygmy one – is large, so it is an impressive sight). She sleeps much of the time (pygmy hippos are nocturnal), and when she does her ears often wiggle. She runs around awkwardly yet charmingly, filled with the joy of being alive. Like children everywhere.
Predictions for Moo Deng, the people’s potato princess? A line of plus size apparel, a podcast? I just checked the zoo’s livestream and she’s asleep in a pile of grass. Just as she should be. I imagine, it's tiring for a six-month old, this life of intense celebrity. G’Day Bouncy Pork.
Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami.Ogden Nash
You’re Not My Mother
This female red-crested woodpecker had been investigating this owl nest for a couple of days; perhaps it was her nest last year? This little owlet was definitely startled, and didn't seem to know what to make of the investigator. The woodpecker moved on, and the owlet fled with its siblings about an hour later.
So much good-natured drama all around us — look out and have fun!