Family found creature under a bridge and are documenting its recovery in a fish tank on TikTok
An injured axolotl is on the road to recovery after being rescued from a river in Wales. “Dippy” was found under Dipping Bridge on the River Ogmore near Bridgend, south Wales, by a family who had stopped for a break while travelling on holiday last week.
Evie Hill, 10, told the BBC she lifted up a discarded mat in the shallows of the river, and nestled in the rocks was a 9in (22cm) axolotl, an aquatic salamander native to Mexico. It was pale in colour, with speckles, and had injuries to its tail and stomach believed to have been caused by a predator.
Wild axolotls, which resemble a cross between a fish and a lizard, are found only in Lake Xochimilco near Mexico City and are considered critically endangered. The species’ popularity as pets, however, has exploded in recent years due to their popularity on TikTok, Instagram and Minecraft.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Evie said: “I went down to the bank and there was this thing with gills on its head. I was like: ‘That’s an axolotl.’ I was: ‘Mum, there’s an axolotl in the river.’ She went: ‘There’s not. You’re not going back in the water.’ So I went back in the water anyway, because I’d seen it. And then I caught it and brought it back.”
