**VIDEO AVAILABLE. CONTACT INFO@COVER-IMAGES.COM TO RECEIVE.** An unlikely collaborative has joined forces to save one of the world???s rarest amphibians from extinction. Chester Zoo in the UK, the Michoacana University of Mexico, a Mexican government fisheries centre and a group of Mexican nuns, have come together to develop a breeding programme for the Lake P?Atzcuaro salamander and ensure the continued survival of the critically endangered species. It is the first time a breeding network has been established for the Mexican salamanders, or ???achoques??? as they are locally known, and researchers hope to quickly establish a genetically viable population. The salamanders once thrived in Lake P?Atzcuaro, Mexico???s third largest lake, but are now listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The species is of great importance to the locals who have lived alongside it for hundreds of years but the latest research has led to fears that fewer than 100 individuals may remain. However, the new breeding plan is now aiming to boost numbers and, in time, re-energise the wild population. Chester Zoo is home to six breeding pairs of the salamander, with a further 30 adults at the Michoacana University of Mexico and at a Mexican government fisheries centre, both located in the city of Morelia in south-west Mexico. And a further, particularly genetically important colony is also found at a monastery in the small Mexican town of P?Atzcuaro, which is home to 23 nuns. The Sisters of the Monastery of the Dominican of Order have been caring for a clutch of the salamanders for more than 150 years. Traditionally, the nuns and people living in the local communities, harvested the salamanders from Lake P?Atzcuaro - the only place in the world in which they were once commonly found - and used them to create a special cough medicine. However, a combination of introduced exotic fish, destruction of forest which has altered the s