Axolotls - The Mexican walking fish

Axolotls, alternatively known as the 'Mexican walking fish', lives its whole life in larval form unlike many salamanders which do not remain in water. Despite growing legs, it retains its gills and remains living underwater, never venturing to land and retaining flamboyant, horn-like gills. The creatures fascinate research scientists due to their ability to fully regrow their limbs which could be useful to the progress of human medicine. Female axolotls can lay 6,000 eggs a year yet thousands have been wiped out by pollution and the remainder must be kept in captivity to survive their original habitat of Lake Xochimilco in Mexico is largely gone, only surviving in canals after the lake was drained of water over many years.