Sir David's long-beaked echidna (''Zaglossus attenboroughi''), also known as Attenborough's long-beaked echidna or the Cyclops long-beaked echidna, is one of the three species from the genus ''
Zaglossus
The long-beaked echidnas (genus ''Zaglossus'') make up one of the two extant genus, genera of echidnas, spiny monotremes that live in New Guinea; the other being the short-beaked echidna. There are three living species and one extinct species in ...
'' that occurs in
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
. It is named in honour of Sir
David Attenborough, the eminent
naturalist. It lives in the
Cyclops Mountains
The Cyclops Mountains ( id, Pegunungan Cycloop) are located to the west of Jayapura in Papua, Indonesia, and north of Lake Sentani.
In Papua, it is also known as Dafonsoro or Dabonsolo mountain, and is the namesake for football club Persidafon.
...
, which are near the cities of
Sentani and
Jayapura in the Indonesian province of
Papua.
Description
It is the smallest member of the genus ''
Zaglossus
The long-beaked echidnas (genus ''Zaglossus'') make up one of the two extant genus, genera of echidnas, spiny monotremes that live in New Guinea; the other being the short-beaked echidna. There are three living species and one extinct species in ...
'', being closer in size to the
short-beaked echidna
The short-beaked echidna (''Tachyglossus aculeatus''), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus ''Tachyglossus''. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snout ...
(''Tachyglossus aculeatus''). The male is larger than the female, and can be differentiated by the spurs on its hind legs.
The echidna is not a social animal, and comes together with its own kind only once a year, in July, to mate. The female will lay the eggs after about eight days, and the babies will stay in the mother's pouch for around eight weeks or until their spines develop. The creature is nocturnal, and can roll up into a spiny ball when it feels threatened, somewhat in the manner of a
hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introductio ...
. It weighs from .
Subsequent systematic revision of ''Zaglossus'' by Flannery & Groves (1998) identified three allopatric species and several subspecies occurring across the island, and these authors erected the new species ''Z. attenboroughi'' (Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna) to describe a single echidna specimen (Plate 1) collected in 1961 at 1,600 m near the top of Mount Rara, in the Cyclops Mountains of northern Dutch New Guinea (now the Indonesian province of Papua).
Conservation
The species was described from a single damaged specimen collected in the Dutch colonial era (c. 1961), and has apparently not been collected since then. Given the ongoing anthropogenic disturbance of the Cyclops Mountain forest habitat, this has raised concern that ''Z. attenboroughi'' populations may already be endangered or even locally extirpated. However, biological surveys of Papua province are notoriously incomplete; it is possible that the animal still exists there or in related mountain ranges. The echidna is endangered by hunting and
habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
. In fact, it was thought to be
extinct until some of its "nose pokes" were found in the mountains of New Guinea. These "nose pokes" are very distinctive and result from the echidna's feeding technique.
The diet of this hardy animal consists of
earthworm
An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...
s,
termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blatto ...
s, insect larvae and
ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...
s. This animal is so high in the endangered-species list that locals are being educated about the creature and asked to stop their tradition of hunting and killing it to share it with rivals as a peace offering. As reported on July 15, 2007, researchers from
EDGE
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
visiting Papua's Cyclops Mountains had recently discovered
burrows and tracks thought to be those of ''Zaglossus attenboroughi''. Furthermore, communication with local people revealed that the species had perhaps been seen as recently as 2005. In 2007, Sir David's long-beaked echidna was identified as one of the top-10 "focal species" by the
Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered
Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species are animal species which have a high 'EDGE score', a metric combining endangered conservation status with the genetic distinctiveness of the particular taxon. Distinctive species have ...
(EDGE) project. The echidna is among the 25 "most wanted lost" species that are the focus of Global Wildlife Conservation's "Search for Lost Species" initiative.
See also
*
List of things named after David Attenborough and his works
This is a list of things named after English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author Sir David Attenborough, and his audiovisual works.
Buildings
* David Attenborough Building in Cambridge, which houses the Cambridge University ...
References
External links
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature
* EDGE of Existenc
(''Zaglossus spp.'')– Saving the World's most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sir David's Long-Beaked Echidna
Monotremes of New Guinea
Endemic fauna of New Guinea
Mammals of Western New Guinea
Critically endangered fauna of Oceania
EDGE species
Mammals described in 1998
Taxa named by Tim Flannery
Taxa named by Colin Groves
David Attenborough
Species known from a single specimen