Scientists have rediscovered a long-lost species of mammal named after British naturalist David Attenborough.
Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna has been spotted in the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia, more than 60 years after it was last seen.
This spiny, hairy creature is believed to have appeared 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs walked the earth.
Attenborough’s Lost Echidna
The echidna is a monotreme, a type of oviparous mammal that also includes the platypus.
They are described as having hedgehog spines, an anteater snout, mole legs and a beak.
They are considered shy, solitary and nocturnal cave people and are notoriously difficult to find.
The long-beaked echidna, called Zaglossus attenborogiis one of the five remaining monotreme species.
Scientifically, it has only been recorded once, in 1961, by a Dutch botanist.
The only evidence of its existence at the moment is a museum specimen from ten years ago in the Natural History Museum of the Netherlands.
Its significance only became clear in 1998, when x-rays showed that it was not a juvenile of another species of echidna, but a clearly visible adult. It was then named after Sir David Attenborough.
Echidnas share their name with a Greek mythical creature that is half woman and half snake.
How were they found 60 years later?
The echidna was photographed for the first time by a wildlife camera on the final day of a four-week expedition led by scientists from the University of Oxford.
Descending from the mountains at the end of his trip, biologist James Kempton discovered on his last memory card a recording of a small creature walking through the thickets of a forest, filmed by more than 80 remote cameras.
“There was great euphoria, but also relief because I had been in the field for so long without a reward until the very last day,” he said, describing the moment he first saw footage of members of the Indonesian conservation group Yappenda.
“I called my colleagues who were still left … and said: “We found it, we found it” – I ran from the table into the living room and hugged the boys.”
To find the creature, researchers at several universities trekked through “one of the most unexplored areas in the world”—the Cyclops Mountains in the Indonesian province of Papua.
During the “sometimes life-threatening” journey through “extremely inhospitable” terrain, the scientists battled venomous animals, sucking leeches, malaria, earthquakes and sweltering heat, often forging paths no human had ever trod before.
They installed more than 80 surveillance cameras, climbed several mountains, and reached a total altitude of more than 37,000 feet—higher than Everest.
Local guides helped the scientists build makeshift laboratories in the middle of the jungle with benches and tables made from forest branches and vines.
But after four weeks in the forest, they found nothing until the last day.
Using the latest images on the latest memory card, the team captured the elusive mammal on camera.
The very first photographs of Attenborough’s echidna were examined by Professor Christopher Helgen, mammalologist, chief scientist and director of the Australian Museum Research Institute.
Source: I News
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