Photos by Chris Meyer Sandi Borland looks over axolotl drawings given to her by a teacher after Borland visited her classroom. She has saved letters, photos and news clippings from her many years as an ambassador for Indiana University.

Salamander colony leaves IU for new home in Kentucky

By John R. Hughey

Moving the Indiana University Axolotl Colony in Bloomington to a new facility was a task Sandra Borland had hoped would happen during cooler weather.

"Axolotls don't like heat," said Borland, the salamander project's outreach coordinator, as she readies moving boxes, foam coolers and the ice packs that will keep the amphibians healthy during the 200-mile trek south to the University of Kentucky. The move was expected to be completed the week of June 20.

The National Science Foundation-funded research project is moving as the colony's director-IU Bloomington biology professor George Malacinski-enters retirement. After initially looking for another IU faculty member to shepherd the project, the NSF transferred funding to Randal Voss of the University of Kentucky, where the lab will continue to supply specimens to researchers across the country. The move ends a nearly 50-year history with IU. Voss was chosen to assume leadership of the project because of his research on regenerative genetics.

"I feel like it won't hit me how big the moving job will be until I'm actually doing it," said Borland, who is coordinating the move with the colony's assistant director, Jill Gresens. Planning for the transition has been in the works for the past year and a half.

One of the most difficult tasks in getting the project moved, according to Borland, is the water system. "Water quality is important. Not that the water issue means super clean, but that it is very consistent," she said, adding that the project's Bloomington-based water system provider is traveling to Kentucky to make sure the new lab has the same system in place to keep the breeding stock-and embryos-alive and healthy. A sudden change in the salamanders' environment would kill the amphibians.  

While the move to Kentucky will keep the colony's mission as a research lab supplier intact, the project's outreach arm will cease-at least in the form it has taken in the past several years under Borland's direction. As outreach coordinator, Borland-who has worked with the axolotls since 1989--expanded the scope of the project and set up a system to bring axolotls into elementary and middle school classrooms. In recent years, the colony's NSF funding has included money for Borland to visit schools and coordinate the outreach.

"We have a lot of axolotls in Indiana schools. A lot of these teachers I worked with personally to get their axolotls set up in the classrooms," said Borland, who not only visited classrooms talking about axolotls but also routinely brought along a king snake and turtles, all the while offering advice and tips to teachers on creating axolotl habitats. "I see about 2,000-3,000 kids a year. So all these animals get touched and admired by a lot of kids. And all that goes home to the parents. If you think about the network of people this affects...I wish more scientists did outreach. I think they could have a big effect."

As proof of the impact the outreach has had, Borland opens a filing cabinet drawer packed with classroom photos, newspaper clippings and hand-drawn pictures.

"I have a second-grade teacher out of Spencer who swears her kids that weren't interested in school now love school because of axolotls," she said. "Everybody has lots of good ideas for how teachers can improve science but they never make it very practical. My big thing over the years has been trying to make it so teachers really can do this."

At least in the foreseeable future, funding to continue the classroom outreach isn't in place after the move, but Borland is hopeful the work she initiated will resume. "Other people's vision of outreach is much different. You can do outreach just in college classrooms. It doesn't have to be working with elementary," she said.

As far as employment after the move, Borland is out of a job. "I haven't even thought about it. I haven't had time. I've been doing this for a long time and for right now I feel like 'what else can I do?' All I know how to do is axolotls," she said in a self-effacing tone. "This job has been really special."

Editor's note: For more information on the Axolotl Colony- including information on its history with IU, research links and insights into the unique regenerative genetics of axolotls--visit the project's current web site at http://www.indiana.edu/~axolotl/  

More axolotl photos