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The Sisters of Immaculate Health are expert breeders of the highly endangered Lake Patzcuaro axolotl or ‘achoque’. The nuns rear the creatures in their convent in the Mexican town of Patzcuaro, where they use some of them to make a traditional Mexican remedy for lung conditions. However, collaborating with conservation scientists, their skills at breeding achoques may ensure the survival of the species in its one natural home in Lake Patzcuaro. Victoria Gill tours the convent’s salamander farm and speaks to Sister Ofelia and Sister Sophana, along with biologists Gerado Garcia and Omar Dominguez.

(Image: Sister Ofelia and two of the convent’s four hundred achoques, Credit: Will Condliffe, Chester Zoo.)