内容摘要：Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at

Current fascination toward axolotl and its rise to sacred status in pre-Hispanic times is hardly a coincidence. It was most likely sparked by its exceptional biological features, Montero said.Through the glass of a fish tank, where academic institutions preserve them and hatcheries put them up for sale, axolotl are hard to spot. Their skin is usually dark to mimic stones — though an albino, pinkish variety can be bred — and they can stay still for hours, buried in the muddy ground of their natural habitats or barely moving at the bottom of their tanks in captivity.

Aside from their lungs, they breathe through their gills and skin, which allows them to adapt to its aquatic environment. And they can regenerate parts of its heart, spinal cord and brain.A woman holds an axolotl during a media presentation in Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)A woman holds an axolotl during a media presentation in Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

“This species is quite peculiar,” said biologist Arturo Vergara, who supervises axolotl preservation efforts in various institutions and cares after specimens for sale at a hatchery in Mexico City.Depending on the species, color and size, Axolotl’s prices at

— where Vergara works — start at 200 pesos ($10 US). Specimens are available for sale when they reach four inches in length and are easy pets to look after, Vergara said.

“While they regularly have a 15-years life span (in captivity), we’ve had animals that have lived up to 20,” he added. “They are very long-lived, though in their natural habitat they probably wouldn’t last more than three or four years.”At the time, Kažimír was acquiring a luxury villa located in an upscale neighborhood of Bratislava, the capital, from the owner of the companies.

Kažimír, who pleaded not guilty, had previously said that he considered the charges to be illegal and fabricated.The case dates to when Kažimír served as finance minister in the leftist government of populist Prime Minister

from 2012 to 2019. He was a member of Fico’s Smer, or Direction, party before taking the central bank job.Smer lost the 2020 general election and was replaced by a coalition government whose parties campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket.