Endangered Echidna not seen in 60 years caught on camera

Scientists on mountains in Indonesia have rediscovered a rare species of echidna named after broadcaster David Attenborough, more than 60 years after its last official sighting.

People know the animal as Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), and it belongs to a small, unique group of egg-laying mammals called monotremes, which also includes the platypus.

Just like hedgehogs, spiny, nocturnal creatures called echidnas roll into a ball when they sense danger. Z. attenboroughi, the smallest known species of the long-beaked echidna, weighs between 5 and 10 kilograms.

Elusive echidna found in Indonesia

In 1961, in the tropical forests of Indonesia's Cyclops mountains, scientists officially discovered the animal. Living in burrows, echidnas are shy creatures that only meet others once a year during mating season. Over the decades, repeated attempts to observe them have failed.

James Kempton from the University of Oxford and his colleagues set up cameras around the Cyclops mountains in an effort to capture photos of the elusive species. After four weeks, they realized they had successfully captured the first ever photographs of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna.

"Climbing those mountains I like to think of as climbing a ladder whose rungs are made of rotting wood, with rails cladded in spikes and thorns, and a frame shrouded by sunken vines and falling rocks," James Kempton, the lead researcher, said of the perilous climb.

Illegal hunting has long plagued the Indonesian mountain range, which is the only known habitat for the rare endangered echidna. The team suspected that the animal might be in the area due to the holes in the ground it uses to search for worms. They set up over 30 camera traps in pursuit of the animal, hoping for the first confirmed sighting in decades.

Importance on endangered echidna

A BBC report states that the local culture places significant importance on the endangered echidna. There exists a tradition that sends one conflicting party into the forest to look for this animal while the other party searches the ocean for a marlin. The local folklore regards both creatures as elusive, yet believes that locating both represents the resolution of the conflict.

According to the NBC News report, the expedition had multiple goals, not just finding the rare echidna. Researchers brought back hundreds of new insects, discovered two new species of frogs, and found a new species of shrimp that lives on land.

"But researchers nearly failed to locate the rare species," Kempton said. "We didn't find the images of the echidna until we looked at the last SD card on the final day of the long expedition."

Kempton said, "We felt a great sense of relief at first, because we had tried so hard and believed they were there, but we needed concrete evidence for the scientific proof. This relief quickly gave way to extreme euphoria.

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