1000 wild ones. There's much more in captivity than in the wild.

They evolved to be quite dependent on the unique agricultural islands in the Valley of Mexico called Chinampas. These were drained by the colonizers. Which is why Mexico City is now facing a severe water crisis and also why these creatures are endangered

Contrary to the report, they are actually not difficult to keep as pets - they are just highly sensitive to pollutants in the water.

The unfortunate case for the wild population, is that they naturally inhabit a location which today has one of the highest human population densities in the world, and hence massive pressure on water resources. We could probably quite easily re-establish a breeding population in remote areas in Europe but would constitute an invasive species and hence wouldn't happen.

As a species, they are not endangered due to their very large populations now in the pet trade (though these then get inbred, become domesticated etc).

Axolotls have also been used for over 200 years for medical research related to regenerative biology. They’re unique among vertebrates in that they can regenerate nearly every part of their body, even parts of their brain. https://orip.nih.gov/about-orip/research-highlights/amazing-...

"in the wild" might be doing a lot of heavy lifting, or it may be based on subspecies or similar.

I don't really expect to find endangered species at the local pet store.

I believe all captive ones are cross-bred, so are distinct from the native species

the pet ones are almostly entirely captive bred so they are pretty distinct by now