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"Do you want to raise dinosaurs?" I have a dinosaur here that you can keep. "It's a phrase I often say from the owner of my pet store downstairs. Maybe when you hear this sentence, you will think that the boss is crazy, where are there any dinosaurs now? Moreover, even if there are dinosaurs, we can't raise them.
Hey, in fact, this is the boss's routine, the "dinosaur" in his mouth refers to the Mexican blunt salamander. What the? Never heard of the name? Have you ever heard of the Salamander?
Or not? You've heard of the "hexagonal dinosaur"?
This kind of cute little thing, I believe that even if you have not raised it, you must have seen it on the Internet. To be honest, although I have kept a lot of amphibians and reptiles, the Mexican blunt salamander is still the number one in my mind when it comes to cuteness.
It is also because of cuteness that many people want to raise a Mexican blunt salamander. Whether it's in pet stores or in some people's homes, we can see the Mexican blunt salamander.
Therefore, in the eyes of many people, it seems that animals like the Mexican blunt salamander are impossible to become extinct.
But is this really the case?
What I want to tell you today is a painful and strange fact, that is, on the one hand, the Mexican blunt salamander, as a pet and medical animal, has entered thousands of households, and even a small child can keep one, but on the other hand, it is already on the verge of extinction.
Obviously, it is strange to go into thousands of households but face extinction. But this is not at all contradictory, if you want to know the reason, I have to tell you about the origin of the Mexican blunt salamander.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the origin of the Mexican blunt salamander</h1>
As its name suggests, the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander is a salamander species endemic to Mexico. Because they remain juvenile throughout their lives, they have 6 feathered outer gills on either side of their heads, hence the name "hexagonal dinosaurs".
About 150 years ago, the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander was first selected as a pet by humans, and has since acquired the status of a pet. It is also because of breeding that the population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander has since been divided into artificial and wild populations.
Outwardly, there are subtle differences between artificial and wild populations. For example, the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander produced by artificial selection has a more diverse color and is typically represented by white.
The color of the Mexican blunt salamander in wild populations is less vivid, they are gray-brown all over the body, and the skin is densely covered with small black-brown spots, which makes it easier for them to hide themselves in the water.
And the magic of fate is here, although the artificial population of Mexican blunt salamander and the wild population of Mexican blunt salamander are in the same vein, but they have embarked on two very different paths.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the different fates of humans and wilds</h1>
What kind of living state of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander in the artificial population is, I believe I don't need to say more. Not to mention the European and American countries that raise a large number of climbing pets, let's say that in our country, the Mexican blunt salamander as a pet can also be seen everywhere.
Not to mention that the Mexican blunt salamander has a super regenerative ability, which is also of great value to our medical research, so there are many medical laboratories that will raise a large number of Mexican blunt salamander for research.
It is no exaggeration to say that the artificial population of the Mexican blunt salamander is really thriving.
Next, we turn our attention to the wild population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander, which is much worse off.
According to the investigation of biologist Luis Zambrano, the current wild population of Mexican blunt salamander is only distributed in the area of Lake Hodgmirco and Lake Chalco in the southern part of Mexico City, and the living space is quite tight.
In addition to this, Luis Zambrano also listed a set of shocking numbers:
In 1998, he first recorded the number of blunt-mouthed salamanders in Mexico, when the figure was around 6,000 per square kilometer.
In 2000, the population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander had fallen to about 1,000 per square kilometre.
In 2008, only 100 Apatciforms remained in Mexico.
In 2017, the number of blunt salamanders in Mexico was already less than 35 per square kilometer.
Today, the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander has been designated as a critically endangered species by the IUCN.
The wild population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander has so drastically decreased that every viewer feels a tremor in their hearts. If the population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander continues to shrink at this rate, it is estimated that it will not be long before it becomes extinct.
Everything has cause and effect, and in the face of such a situation, we can't help but ask, what is the reason behind the rapid demise of the Mexican blunt salamander?
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why did it fall into this field? </h1>
There is a wealth of literature and reports on the causes of the demise of the Mexican salamander, and without exception, they all point to two culprits, namely invasive alien species and water pollution.
1. Invasion of alien species
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations introduced carp and tilapia into many lakes in Mexico in order to increase the protein content in the diets of Mexican residents.
Intuitively, these two fish are not fierce species such as sharks and killer whales, and they should not be able to make any big waves. But for many aquatic species growing in Mexico, these two fish are not seen by them and their ancestors, and nature has not evolved the ability to cope with these two fish.
To make matters worse, in addition to carp and tilapia, some of the world's other aquatic or amphibians have also come to Mexico in various ways and have multiplied in large numbers.
These alien species themselves are not afraid of meat, extremely adaptable, coupled with the pressure of no predators, immediately began to make waves in Mexico's major river basins and lakes. The weak Mexican blunt salamander naturally becomes their delicacy.
2. Water pollution
According to research, there are many causes of water pollution, such as the extremely old sewer systems in many cities in Mexico, and whenever a storm strikes, the rainwater that enters the ground will carry toxic chemicals from human waste into the lake.
Coupled with the fact that the two lakes where the Mexican blunt salamander lives are well-known local tourist attractions, the arrival of tourists and sightseeing boats will increase the harmful substances in the water on the one hand, and on the other hand, it will clear the silt at the bottom of the lake and expose the sand and gravel at the bottom, which is also not suitable for the survival of the Mexican blunt salamander.
So the Mexican blunt salamander was destroyed step by step under the destruction of these two "demons".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > do we have a way to save them? </h1>
Maybe some people will be very unhappy about this, can't we do anything to help such a lovely creature? By the way, aren't there a large artificial population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander? We can release captive pets back into the wild.
This kind of thinking is really great, but on a practical level, it is human wishful thinking.
On the one hand, the artificial population of the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander seems to be huge, but if it is really traced back, they are the descendants of the 34 Mexican blunt-mouthed salamanders that were first artificially selected 150 years ago.
In other words, the Mexican blunt salamander you raised at home and the Mexican blunt salamander raised by a family in the United States are actually close relatives. If these Mexican blunt-mouthed salamanders are released into the wild, normal populations without inbreeding will not be born.
On the other hand, if we do not first change the bad living environment, just release a large number of pet Mexican blunt salamanders into the wild, the result is like a meat bun beating a dog or sending a sheep into the tiger's mouth, and it is impossible to save the Mexican blunt salamander.
In fact, it has come to this point that the only people who can really save the Mexican blunt salamander are the scientists and those who provide assistance to the relevant programs.
As for me, what can we ordinary people do? I think the most important thing to do is to firmly grasp these lessons and understand that every action of oneself has the potential to irreparably affect other organisms.
As long as everyone can do every little environmental protection thing in life, they can add their own contribution to avoiding the recurrence of tragedy.
#我是生活家 #