It can regenerate bits of its body. Ancient Mexicans revered it as a mischievous, shape-shifting god.

They named it axolotl — translation: “water monster” — and it’s a “salamander with a Mona Lisa smile,” reports the Washington Post, “an alien-looking creature with a permanent grin and a crown of feathery gills”.

But while there’s over a million in the world’s scientific laboratories, back in its only natural habitat — the canals of Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City — it’s on the brink of extinction.

In hopes of preventing the annihilation of a species with mystifying traits, ecologists at Mexico’s National Autonomous University are giving the public the chance to virtually adopt an axolotl. For $30, $180 or $360, donors can choose the sex, age and name of the little buddy they get to call theirs for a month, six months or a year, respectively. The axolotls stay in Mexico, but donors receive an adoption kit with an infographic, the axolotl’s identification card, a certificate of adoption and a personalized thank-you letter.

The campaign also includes options to buy an axolotl a meal for $10 or to fix up one of their homes for $50. And for those wanting to splurge a bit more, participants can adopt the axolotl’s refuge of chinampas — the artificial islands that dot Lake Xochimilco — for one, six or 12 months starting at $450. The funds will go toward building refuges for the axolotl and restoring its habitat, which has been devastated by the effects of Mexico City’s urbanization over the last decades, said Luis Zambrano, an ecologist at Mexico’s National Autonomous University.

“A species can’t be a species without its habitat,” Zambrano said.

Axolotls have “helped scientists understand how organs develop in vertebrates, uncover the causes of the birth defect spina bifida and discover thyroid hormones…”

“The salamanders have also become beloved exotic pets — to the point that ‘there’s claw machines in Japan that let you pick up an axolotl to take home,’ Zambrano added.”