In the 30+ windows I have open in the search for a "wild" axolotl - in which a surprising number of them are leucistic (sarcasm) I lost track of what I was doing where and its funny how many pages lead back to caudata and accidentally posted above without finishing.....
.. the doll collection was one mans' attempt to appease the ghost of a girl child who drowned on his property. And its still creepy looking as heck to me.
With all I've read about axolotls I finally know where they came from. LOL yeah yeah lakes in Mexico - but I meant the original specimens sent to Paris.
Eventually I gave up on finding a wild axolotl in Lake Xochimilco . I also used Xochimilco Canal(s) in the search. And the search morhphed into finding a representation of the animals sent to Jardin des Plantes in Paris and got nothing. I am seeing a large number of names/words I recognize and then drift off on tangents to see why I know those names/words. Dumeril was one, lol first thing that popped into my head was the dumeril boa. And isn't there a newt or salamander with that name in it?
Seriously I've blown my entire sunday looking for a picture of an axolotl in its native habitat (yeah I used that search phrase too) I even started to look for a phone number to the mexican zoo that was mentioned in the first link I sent. I was going to have a hispanic friend of mine do the talking, lol and find out where they got their specimens from. And every time I search for "fisherman with axolotl" I get the same article and phrase "roberto... axololt enchilada... taco..." LOL blah blah blah dangit!
I probably won't stop looking and I have this hinky feeling that there is a book with pictures of what we're looking for - I've seen reference to it here and there - but for now I think I'm gonna take a break. I don't recall ever being so stumped on such a simple search. Its not extinct yet in the wild there SHOULD be at least a single picture of the animal in its native habitat, and yet I can't find it. Its a puzzle and its driving me nuts.
SO! If you find it, please post it back here!
Sharon