What a nun can teach a scientist about ecology

OK, I would like to introduce all of you
beautiful, curious-minded people

to my favorite animal in the world.

This is the Peter Pan
of the amphibian world.

It's an axolotl.

So it's a type of salamander,

but it never fully grows up
and climbs out of the water

like other salamanders do.

And this little guy has
X-Man-style powers, right?

So if it loses any limb,

it can just completely regenerate.

It's amazing.

And, I mean, look at it,
it's got a face with a permanent smile.

It's framed by feathery gills.

It's just, how could you not love that?

This particular type of axolotl,
a very close relative,

is known as an achoque.

It is equally as cute,

and it lives in just one place
in a lake in the north of Mexico.

It's called Lake Patzcuaro,

and as you can see,

it is stunningly beautiful.

But unfortunately, it's been so overfished
and so badly polluted

that the achoque is dying out altogether.

And this is something that's a scenario
that's playing out all over the world.

We're living through an extinction crisis,

and species are particularly vulnerable
when they're evolutionarily tailored

to just one little niche
or maybe one lake.

But this is TED, right?

So this is where I give you
the big idea, the big solution.

So how do you save one special
weird species from going extinct?

Well, the answer, at least my answer,

isn't a grand technological intervention.

It's actually really simple.

It's that you find people
who know all about this animal

and you ask them and you listen to them,

and you work with them,
if they're up for that.

So I want to tell you about
how I've seen that in science,

and in conservation in particular,

if scientists don't team up
with local people

who have really valuable knowledge

but a practical wisdom that's not going
to be published in any academic journal,

they can really miss the point.

Scientists and science as an enterprise

can fall at the first hurdle

if it rushes in knowing
that it's the experts that know best.

But when scientists shake off
those academic constraints

and really look to people
who have a totally different

but really important perspective
on what they're trying to do,

it can genuinely save the world,

one wonderful weird amphibian at a time.

So, in the case of the achoque,

these are the people
you need on your team.

These are the Sisters
of the Immaculate Health.

They are nuns who have a convent
in Patzcuaro, they live in Patzcuaro,

and they have a shared history
with the achoque,

and it is so mind-bogglingly wonderful

that it drew me all the way there
to make an audio documentary about them,

and I even have the unflattering selfie

to prove it.

So there is a room at the center
of their convent, though,

that looks like this.

It's very strange.

It's lined with all these tanks
full of fresh water

and hundreds of achoques.

And that's because this creature,
because of its regenerative abilities,

it's believed has healing powers
if you consume it.

So the sisters actually
make and sell a medicine

using achoques.

I bought a bottle of it.

So this is it.

It tastes a bit like honey,

but the sisters reckon it is good

for all kinds of particularly
respiratory ailments,

so I just want you to have a listen,
if you will, of a clip of Sister Ofelia.

(Video) Sister Ofelia: [Our convent
was founded by Dominican nuns

here in Patzcuaro in 1747.

Sometime after that,

our sisters started to make
the achoque syrup.

We didn't discover
the properties of the achoque.

That was the original people
from around here, since ancient times.

But we then started to make the syrup too.

The locals knew that,

and they came to offer us the animals.]

(Video) Victoria Gill: I see.

So the achoques are
part of making that syrup.

What does the syrup treat,
and what is it for?

(Video) SO: [It's good for coughs, asthma,

bronchitis, the lungs, and back pain.]

(Video) VG: And so you've
harnessed that power

in a syrup, in a medicine.

Can you tell me how it's made?

You're shaking your head and smiling.

VG: Yeah, they're not up for sharing
the centuries-old secret recipe.

(Laughter)

But the decline in the achoque

actually nearly put a halt
to that medicine production altogether,

which is why the sisters started this.

It's the world's first achoque farm.

So all they wanted was a healthy,
sustainable population

so that they could continue
to make that medicine,

but what they created at the same time

was a captive breeding program
for a critically endangered species.

And fast forward a few years,

and these scientists
that you can see in this picture

from Chester Zoo,
all the way over the in UK,

not far from where I live,

and from Michoacán University
in Morelia in Mexico

have persuaded the sister --
it took years of careful diplomacy --

to join them in a research partnership.

So the nuns show the biologists

how you rear perfectly healthy,
very robust Patzcuaro achoques,

and the scientists have put
some of their funding

into tanks, filters and pumps

into this strange, incongruous,
but amazing room.

This is the kind of partnership
that can save a species.

But I don't think I see
enough of this sort of thing,

and I have been ludicrously
lucky in my job.

I have traveled to loads of places
and just basically followed around

brilliant people who are trying
to use science to answer big questions

and solve problems.

So I've hung out with scientists
who have solved the mystery

of the origin of the menopause
by tracking killer whales

off the north Pacific coast,

and I've followed around scientists

who have planted cameras
in Antarctic penguin colonies,

because they were looking to capture
the impacts of climate change

as it happens.

But it's this team
that really stuck with me,

that really showed me the impact

that these delicate but really
important relationships can have.

And I think the reason
that it stuck with me as well

is because it's not common,

and one of the reasons it's not common

is because our traditional approach

of the hierarchical system
of academic achievement

doesn't exactly encourage
the type of humility

where scientists will look
to non-scientists

and really ask for their input.