By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
No, that's not an axolotl. An almost extinct salamander in real life, the axolotl is a popular creature in the game Minecraft. That's why elementary students recently confused Puff, the barred tiger salamander, with an axolotl. Puff was one of nearly 60 tiger salamanders recently rescued from a flooded basement slated for demolition. Puff - named for his dragon-like appearance - now calls the Kansas Wetlands Education Center home.
Puff is in a state of neoteny, meaning the amphibian kept its juvenile aquatic features even though it is a full-grown adult. KWEC Educator Pam Martin helped with the rescue and said no one is sure how or why certain salamanders remain in that state.
"If they are in a body of water without fish, and there are drought conditions, scientists don't know what triggers it, but they will remain in the aquatic state with gills, the tail fin, the coloration of the larval stage," she said. "Then they sexually mature in that aquatic state and remain that way, instead of becoming terrestrial and going on land."
Several months ago, Martin was contacted by an employee of Northern Kansas Gas, who thought there might be two dozen of the salamanders in the basement of a building the company planned to demolish. The basement ended up having 10 feet of standing water, and Martin and others ended up capturing 58 of the salamanders, most of which were relocated to cattle tanks with water. The state of the salamanders made them a rare find.
"It used to be more common, but now we have fish in almost all ponds, and the fish will eat them," Martin said. "So it's rather uncommon to find that many in the aquatic state like that."
With Puff being so unique, KWEC Director Curtis Wolf was surprised when area second graders recently visited the Wetlands facility and thought Puff was something even rarer, the axolotl.
"These would be very closely related to axolotls," he said. "My understanding is axolotl is another species of salamander, typically, but they're very closely related to tiger salamanders."
Tiger salamanders can live for 14 years or beyond, and Wolf said the salamander is unlikely to undergo any more changes.