Named after Sir David Attenborough, the Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi) was captured for the first time in photos and video footage in the Cyclops Mountains in Indonesian New Guinea.
One of the first-ever photographs of the Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi). Image credit: Expedition Cyclops.
First described from a single damaged specimen in the 1960s, the Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna is a monotreme, a distinct group of egg-laying mammals that includes the platypus.
Also known as Sir David’s long-beaked echidna or the Cyclops long-beaked echidna, this species lives in the Cyclops Mountains, which are near the cities of Sentani and Jayapura in the Indonesian province of Papua.
The animal is so special because it is one of only five remaining species of monotremes, the sole guardians of this remarkable branch of the tree of life.
It has never been recorded anywhere outside the Cyclops Mountains, and is currently classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
“The discovery is the result of a lot of hard work and over three and a half years of planning,” said Dr. James Kempton, a biologist at the University of Oxford.
“A key reason why we succeeded is because, with the help of NGO YAPPENDA, we have spent years building a relationship with the community of Yongsu Sapari, a village on the north coast of the Cyclops Mountains.”
“The trust between us was the bedrock of our success because they shared with us the knowledge to navigate these treacherous mountains, and even allowed us to research on lands that have never before felt the tread of human feet.”
Dr. Kempton and colleagues deployed over 80 trail cameras, making multiple ascents of the mountains, and climbing more than 11,000 m (more than the height of Everest) in the process.
For almost the entire four weeks that they spent in the forest, the cameras recorded no sign of the echidna.
On the last day, with the last images on the final memory card, they obtained their shots of the elusive mammal — the first ever photographs of the Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna.
The researchers hope that their rediscovery will help bring attention to the conservation needs of the Cyclops, and Indonesian New Guinea more generally, and they are committed to supporting long-term monitoring of the echidna.
