Yet the axolotl has become an improbable global megastar. Shops are crowded with cuddly axolotls. Toy axolotls fall out of McDonald’s Happy Meals. Axolotl-themed clothes, jewellery and Christmas ...

The New Jersey preschooler’s favorite animal is the axolotl, an amphibian that grows ... they still tend to start with one kid who loves a weird animal. “What’s underestimated in kids ...