SHS biology teacher Daryl Traylor has three considerably rare classroom pets of the name Axolotl. Axolotls are lizards that attain the rare ability to “truly regenerate” meaning that they can regenerate entire limbs while most lizards can only regenerate at most a tail. Traylor has three of these lizards, one albino, one golden, and one wild green. The golden and albino Axolotls don’t have opaque skin, their skin is see through, especially on the albino you can see through and see their intestines.

Traylor came about getting these lizards from elementary school teacher, Jodi Barth, about a month ago, who ordered them from a research lab at the University of Kentucky. Traylor says that she wanted the lizards not only were they really cool but they were also very scientific.

“They’re almost extinct in the wild,” Traylor said. “The wild ones from one lake underneath Mexico City.”

These lizards don’t need too much special attention when it comes to care. Traylor keeps the lizards in a regular glass tank part filled with rocks but the glass on the other side. Traylor doesn’t use a filter for the tanks because the lizards don’t like how it moves them around a lot. These particular Axolotl lizards can be fed specialized pellets, worms, baby shrimp and nightcrawlers, Traylor chooses to stay with the pellets. The kids in Traylor’s class enjoy the lizards along with the teacher.

“Everyone should look into uncommon organisms, because sometimes we can learn the most from them,” Traylor said.

Rumors have been spread saying that if you put an Axolotl in the refrigerator, they will automatically go into hibernation. This information is false. Axolotls do not hibernate and it is not helpful to keep them in a temperature lower than 10°C according to http://www.axolotl.org/requirements.htm .