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Have you noticed that axolotls are everywhere? These sometimes-pink (but in the wild, usually brown) salamanders are famous on TikTok, in Minecraft, in the heart of every kid we know, and now, on the cover of Nat Geo Kids magazine. To celebrate our 50th anniversary this September, we sent a staff photographer to Mexico City to capture our cover critter. Go behind the scenes of the shoot, then get in on the birthday fun below! |
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY REBECCA HALE, NG STAFF |
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Meet Freckles, a four-and-a-half-year-old axolotl at Mexico City’s Axolotitlán, or National Museum of the Axolotl. Photographing Freckles wasn’t easy. “When they’re put in the tank, axolotls collapse their gills and torpedo down to the bottom,” staff photographer Rebecca Hale says. “I quickly realized I couldn’t get that beautiful floating-in-water shot.” Instead, the team tempted Freckles with worms to move her into the right position, then waited for her to fan out her gills.
Freckles was born in captivity as part of the museum’s breeding program. But many axolotls at Axolotitlán are surrendered or abandoned pets. “Very little is known about axolotl care, which leads to many of them being mistreated and abandoned once people understand everything involved in keeping them healthy,” Axolotitlán founder and director Pamela Valencia says. Plus, the demand for axolotls as pets has contributed to their critically endangered status: Fewer than 1,000 axolotls remain in the wild today.
Remind your axolotl-loving youngsters that these amphibians are best kept in the wild, then share these fun facts!
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| | | These animals are named after the Aztec god of lightning, Xolotl, who is said to guide the dead.
| | | | | | | Axolotls can regrow a leg in about a month. | | | | | | | They have a rare trait (called neoteny) where they retain features from their baby stages throughout their whole life. | | | | | |
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PHOTOGRAPH BY Alex Mustard, NPL, Minden Pictures |
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Animals know how to have fun, too! This California sea lion is playing with a sea star: Dropping it and then chasing it as it sinks. Click through the gallery to see tree-swinging orangutans, play-wrestling foxes, and more. |
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PHOTOGRAPH by Jennifer Wan, Getty Images |
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Surprise your kids with these outrageous facts. Click on the photo galleries for more! |
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PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL, USGS
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PHOTOGRAPH BY KEIICHIHIKI, GETTY IMAGES
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It’s our 50th birthday—so we’re throwing our readers a “Weird But True!” party! The issue is packed with 22 pages of wacky, wild, and crazy-cool facts about axolotls, birthdays, amazing animals, peculiar planets, Earth’s oddest spots, and more. (Subscribe here!) |
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