The Leora's stream salamander or ajolote (''Ambystoma leorae'') is a rare species of

mole salamander The mole salamanders (genus ''Ambystoma'') are a group of Salamandroidea, advanced salamanders endemic to North America. The group has become famous due to the study of the axolotl (''A. mexicanum'') in research on neoteny, paedomorphosis, and t ...

in the family

Ambystomatidae Ambystomatidae is a family of salamanders belonging to the Suborder Salamandroidea in the class Amphibia. It contains two genera, ''Ambystoma'' (the mole salamanders) and ''Dicamptodon'' (the Pacific giant salamanders). ''Ambystoma'' contains ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to a very small area of land in the Iztaccihuatl-Popocatepetl National Park on the border of the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

with

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

, with a single known population on

Mount Tlaloc Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

. Its very specific requirements as regards water quality militates against its survival in a habitat where water is being extracted, cattle graze and the salamander has traditionally been eaten as food. It has been listed as a threatened species by the Mexican Government and as "

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

" by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

Distribution

This species is

to the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

in central Mexico. It was historically restricted to six locations in the Iztaccihuatl-Popocatepetl National Park (IPNP) located on the border of the

with

. Long ago it disappeared from the heavily polluted Rio Frio where it was first found. A recent research rediscovered a new and relict locality of ''A. leorae'', possibly the last one (Sunny et al. 2014a). The new study reports that the critically endangered species persists in a single population on

, located adjacent to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, one of the largest and most densely urbanized area on earth.

Habitat

The salamanders were found in two small streams (2 m wide, 6.5 m depth) with cold water temperature (12 to 15 °C), highly elevated oxygenation water level (78% dissolved oxygen) surrounded by small alpine grassland (''

Muhlenbergia ''Muhlenbergia'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. The genus is named in honor of the German-American amateur botanist Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815). Many of the species are known by the common name muhly. The greatest ...

'' sp.) and mountain forest (''

Pinus hartwegii ''Pinus hartwegii'' ( syn. ''P. rudis'', ''P. donnell-smithii''), Hartweg's pine, the Mexican mountain pine, or pino de las alturas, is a pine native to the mountains of Mexico and Central America east to Honduras. It is named after Karl Theodor ...

'' and ''

Abies religiosa ''Abies religiosa'', the oyamel fir or sacred fir, (known as in Spanish) is a fir native to the mountains of central and southern Mexico ( Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Sierra Madre del Sur) and western Guatemala. It grows at high elevations o ...

''). The study show low

genetic diversity Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It ranges widely, from the number of species to differences within species, and can be correlated to the span of survival for a species. It is d ...

but high average

heterozygosity Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mos ...

, and three genetic subpopulations were recognized in the restricted geographic range (Sunny et al. 2014a).

Conservation status

Because of the species limited distribution, the clearance of the forest, and the pollution and consumption of the water by humans, it is classified by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

as a

species (Shaffer et al. 2004) and as a threatened species by the Mexican government (SEMARNAT 2010). In the geographic distribution of the species, there are several threats that are modifying the ecosystem, including alteration of the stream to collect the water for human consumption, introduction of cattle, and the direct collection of specimens for traditional food (Sunny et al. 2014b).

References

* SEMARNAT (2010) Norma Oficial Mexicana NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, Protección ambiental-Especies nativas de México de flora y fauna silvestres-Categorías de riesgo y especificaciones para su inclusión, exclusión o cambio. Lista de especies en riesgo. Diario Oficial de la Federación, 10 diciembre 2010, México * Sunny A, Monroy-Vilchis O, Fajardo V, Aguilera-Reyes U (2014a
Genetic diversity and structure of an endemic and critically endangered stream river salamander (Caudata: ''Ambystoma leorae'') in Mexico
Conserv Genet 15: 49–59. * Sunny A, Monroy-Vilchis O, Reyna-Valencia C, Zarco-González MM (2014b
Microhabitat Types Promote the Genetic Structure of a Micro-Endemic and Critically Endangered Mole Salamander (''Ambystoma leorae'') of Central Mexico
PLoS ONE, 9, e103595 doi:101371/journalpone0103595. * Taylor EH (1943) Herpetological novelties from Mexico. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 29: 343–36

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2511165 Mole salamanders Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Amphibians described in 1943