confounded species , or those only observed from a few face-off , are often dare to havegone extinctor exist in extremely limited turn . One of the cause it ’s hard to be trusted is that most of these species live in distant , untouchable areas and are elusive , coming out only at night or hide out away in burrow and caves . Now , unexampled camera trap footage has revealed a species not seen since 1961 , as Attenborough ’s long - beaked spiny anteater comes waddling back into view .
Attenborough ’s long - pick anteater ( Zaglossus attenboroughi ) , name after wildlife spreader and raw historianSir David Attenborough , was entrance for the first sentence ever on camera in the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia . The squad , lead by Indonesian NGOYayasan Pelayanan Papua Nenda(YAPPENDA ) , oversee to gather footage of the echidna , also known as “ payangko ” in the Tepera spoken communication , using more than 80 remote trail cameras set up within the rainforest .
“ To see picture of this autochthonal metal money is both supporting and inspiring . The payangko holds a special place in the tradition of the Indigenous inhabitants of the Cyclops and is symbolic of Cyclops ’ conservation effort . We hope this story inspires regenerate interest and motivates increased protection for this unique space , ” said Malcolm Kobak , cofounder of YAPPENDA , in a public press release sent to IFLScience .
Poke holes from the long beak of the echidna had led the team to believe it might still exist. But the proof is very much in the camera trap pudding.Image credit: Expedition Cyclops
The Attenborough ’s long - beaked echidna is one of four species of egg-laying mammal , a pretty funky radical of creature – also featuring theduck - billed platypus – that all inhabit Australia , Tasmania and New Guinea . They also represent a unique corner of natural chronicle , with monotremes having develop severally of other mammal 200 million year ago .
Until now , the only evidence of this metal money of echidna was a individual museum specimen collected by aDutch plant scientist in 1961 . More recently , fieldwork expeditionshave sought to find the baffling mintage ; while there were sign suggesting the species still persisted , such as poke holes made by the echidna ’s nose , actual sightings or television camera trap data have been lack .
This latest expedition , which was three and a half age in the planning , took the team deep into life-threatening lands ; the team suffer injuries including an arm break in two places , a hirudinean behind the eye , and one appendage contractingmalaria . The team was in the forest for four week , and the cameras record no sign of the elusive egg-laying mammal – or so they think . The last retentivity identity card with the final image revealed the animal they had all been wait for .
“ Before this expedition , we knew of only four monotreme species certain to have survived to the innovative daytime : sole subsister that protect a unique and fragileevolutionaryhistory . Attenborough ’s long - beaked anteater is another , crucial guardian of this ancient lineage , and come up it after years of preparatory toil and week of discomfort in the field , was a moment of perfect catharsis , ” enunciate James Kempton , postdoctoral research worker at the University of Oxford and loss leader of the military expedition .
With so few people having see the creature , little is known about their ecology or behavior . After antecedently being assume " lost " , Attenborough ’s long - beak echidna became one ofRe : wild’smost want lost species , as well as anEDGEspecies . It ’s also a critically endangered species on the IUCN Red List , so with its rediscovery , the organizations involved have called for better protection of its habitat and the species within .
The team also discovered several new species , including a tree shrimp , and see a Mayr ’s honeyeater , a hiss species that had not been seen since 2008 .
" We believe that our rediscovery of Attenborough ’s long - peck echidna will permit it to dish as a flagship coinage and a beacon of hope for the conservation of Mount Cyclops ' total forest ecosystem . Our team ’s discoveries , including numerous previously unknownarthropodspecies , underscore the significance of this sinful habitat , " read Leonidas - Romanos Davranoglou , a Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Fellow , bug-hunter at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History , and expedition squad member .
The team will be submitting a ms detail the rediscovery to the preprint waiter bioRxiv short .
