Oxford University researchers on an expedition to Indonesia were stunned to have come across video evidence of an extremely rare species of echidna that had been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for decades, and possibly even extinct.
The Attenborough echidna, named for natural historian and biologist Sir David Attenborough, is one of three species of the Zaglossus genus of echidna that lives only in the Cyclops Mountains on the island of New Guinea. Echidna most closely resemble hedgehogs or porcupines in appearance, in that they're covered in coarse hair that resembles spines. There also are one of only two egg-laying mammals; the other being the duck-billed platypus.
The creatures are often referred to as "living fossils" as they are believed to have first appeared on Earth around 200 million years ago when dinosaurs still roamed. While the ancestor of the species was aquatic, echidnas eventually adapted to life on land.
As nocturnal creatures who live in burrows and tend to be very shy, echidnas are rarely seen, making the discovery that much more groundbreaking.
Researchers recorded four three-second clips of Attenborough's long-beaked echidna during a month-long expedition to treacherous, previously unexplored stretches of the rainforest habitat. The mountains are steep and dangerous, filled with deadly venomous snakes and leeches that drop from trees to feed on blood.
Dr, James Kempton, an Oxford University biologist who led the multi-national Expedition Cyclops, told BBC News that he and the entire team were "euphoric" at the discovery of the creature, which they identified in camera trap footage.
"I'm not joking when I say it came down to the very last SD card that we looked at, from the very last camera that we collected, on the very last day of our expedition," Kempton explained. He added that he had already alerted Attenborough to the rediscovery via letter correspondence, who was "absolutely delighted."
Before the video footage was captured, the only evidence of the Zaglossus attenboroughi that existed was a deceased specimen that had been collected near the top of Mount Rara in the Cyclops Mountains in 1961. It wasn't until 1998 that X-rays revealed that the specimen was not a juvenile of another echidna species, and was subsequently named after Attenborough.
The "lost echidna" was one of many discoveries the team made during the expedition. In addition to "several dozen" new species of insects and frogs, they also found a new species of tree-dwelling shrimp and a previously unknown cave system.
"The top of the Cyclops are really unique," said Gison Morib, a local conservationist who partnered with Oxford University on the expedition. "We have to protect these sacred mountains. There are so many endemic species we don't know."
