Scientists have rediscovered a long-lost species of mammal named after British naturalist David Attenborough.
Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna was spotted in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded.
The spiky, furry creature is thought to have emerged 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs walked the earth.
The lost Attenborough echidna
The echidna is a monotreme – a species of egg-laying mammal which also includes the platypus.
They are described as having the spines of a hedgehog, snout of an anteater, the feet of a mole and a beak.
Known as shy, solitary, nocturnal burrow-dwellers, they are notoriously difficult to find.
The long-beaked echidna, named Zaglossus attenboroughi, is one of only five surviving monotreme species.
It has only been scientifically recorded once before, by a Dutch botanist in 1961.
Until now, the only evidence of its existence was a decades-old museum specimen kept in the natural history museum of the Netherlands.
Its significance only became clear in 1998, when X-rays revealed it was not a juvenile of another echidna species, but rather fully grown and distinct. It was then named after Sir David Attenborough.
Echidnas share their name with a half-woman, half-serpent Greek mythological creature.
How were they found after 60 years?
The echidna was photographed for the first time by a trail camera on the last day of a four-week expedition led by Oxford University scientists.
Having descended from the mountains at the end of the trip, biologist James Kempton found the images of the small creature walking through the forest undergrowth on the last memory card retrieved from more than 80 remote cameras.
“There was a great sense of euphoria, and also relief having spent so long in the field with no reward until the very final day,” he said, describing the moment he first saw the footage with collaborators from Indonesian conservation group Yappenda.
“I shouted out to my colleagues that were still remaining… and said ‘we found it, we found it’ – I ran in from my desk to the living room and hugged the guys.”
To find the creature, members from several universities trekked across “one of the most unexplored regions in the world”, the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia’s Papua province.
During the “sometimes life-threatening” journey through “extremely inhospitable” terrain, the scientists battled venomous animals, sucking leeches, malaria, earthquakes and exhausting heat, often cutting paths where no humans had ever been before.
They deployed over 80 trail cameras, ascended multiple mountains and climbed a total of over 11,000 metres – higher than Everest.
Local guides helped make the scientists makeshift labs in the heart of the jungle, with benches and desks made from forest branches and vines.
But after four weeks in the forest they had found nothing, until the final day.
Using the last images on the final memory card, the team captured the elusive mammal on camera.
The first ever photographs of Attenborough’s echidna were verified by Professor Kristofer Helgen, mammalogist and chief scientist and director of the Australian Museum Research Institute.
