Montana Axie

[selina]

I am from Montana and when I was kid, my dad took us to a lake by Ennis that had Axolotls. They were the green ones. Can anyone else verify this? It was about 20 years ago. I have a hard time convincing people they exist in Montana (or they did at one time) and I can't find anything that mentions they exist in MT. I know I am not CRAZY!!!! Please help!

 

[olaf]

Hi Selina,
there aren`t axolotls in the USA, they occur in Mexico. What you have seen were probably tiger salamander larvae or neotenic tigers (they are very closely related to axolotls)
Olaf

 

[jennifer]

Hi Selina,

Check out the photos on this page of larval and neotenic tiger salamanders:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml

No, you aren't crazy. Sometimes people use the word "axolotl" loosely, to mean any large neotenic (keeping its gills through adulthood) Ambystomata. However, the term is properly only used for Ambystoma mexicanum, which, as Olaf points out, only lives in Mexico (and a lot of aquariums). See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_mexicanum.shtml

 

[selina]

Thank you for the clarification - the ones we seen here do look exactly like the Ambystoma tigrinum (the deep greenish-black color). I am hoping to get my kids to the lake where these interesting little creatures live this summer!

 

[colton]

Did you end up going last summer.

Colton, I edited out the location to prevent unscrupolous people from over collecting at the site.
Ed

(Message edited by Ed on December 04, 2006)