Rediscovery of the Attenborough’s Beaked Echidna in Indonesia: A Triumph of Conservation

2023-11-10 13:54:00
The egg-laying mammal, with the snout of an anteater and hedgehog spines, has been rediscovered by a team of researchers.

A species of mammal thought to have been lost, the Attenborough’s beaked echidna, has been rediscovered in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains following more than 60 years since its last record. This curious specimen, whose name pays tribute to the British naturalist David Attenborough, has spines similar to those of a hedgehog, a snout similar to an anteater, and limbs comparable to those of a mole.

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The images of the aforementioned mammal were obtained through tracking cameras during the last day of a four-week expedition led by scientists from the University of Oxford. James Kempton, the expedition’s biologist, discovered images of the small being, advancing through the undergrowth, on the latest memory card recovered from more than 80 remote cameras.

“It was a great feeling of euphoria, and also relief following having spent so much time in the field without reward until the last day,” Kempton told CNN when speaking regarding the moment he discovered the animal, together with the Indonesian conservation group YAPPENDA .

Echidnas, known for their shyness and nocturnal habits, are members of the monotremes, a group of oviparous mammals that diverged from the rest of the mammalian tree of life regarding 200 million years ago, in the era of the dinosaurs.

The species in question had only been scientifically recorded on one previous occasion, in 1961, by a Dutch botanist. The cave that houses it is located more than 2,000 meters above sea level in the mountains of Indonesia, the BBC noted.

During their adventure, Kempton’s team weathered an earthquake, contracted malaria, and withstood a leech attached to an eyeball. They worked in collaboration with the town of Yongsu Sapari, managing to explore the remote terrain of northeastern Papua.

The echidna is a key element in local culture, it is considered a symbol of conflict resolution. Local traditions state that to settle disagreements, one party is sent to search for the elusive animal in the forest, CNN reported.

BBC highlighted that, until before this expedition, the only evidence of the existence of Zaglossus attenboroughi was a dead specimen, which has been in a museum for decades.

The last division of the mammalian tree of life, the Attenborough echidna, is once once more seen in Indonesia and raises hopes for the conservation of the species. (Expedition Cyclops)

As Pepijn Kamminga, curator of the collection at the Naturalis Natural History Museum in the Netherlands, says, at first glance it looks like a squashed hedgehog, which was cataloged and revealed as a distinct species only in 1998 thanks to X-rays, following being collected. by the Dutch botanist Pieter van Royen.

Upon rediscovery, Kempton claims to have corresponded with Sir David Attenborough himself, who was “absolutely delighted” with the news.

This discovery has given hope for the conservation of this species and other echidnas, which, apart from the platypus, are the only mammals that lay eggs. Of the four existing species, three are long-beaked, including the Attenborough echidna, classified as critically endangered. The expedition also discovered new species of insects and frogs, and observed healthy populations of tree kangaroos and birds of paradise.

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