Attenborough's long-beaked echidna

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About Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna

It is also known as Sir David’s long-beaked echidna or the Cyclops long-beaked echidna.
It is one of three species from the genus Zaglossus that inhabits the island of New Guinea.
It is named in honour of naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
Habitat: It lives in the Cyclops Mountains, which are near the cities of Sentani and Jayapura in the Indonesian province of Papua.
It is the smallest echidna species.
Echidnas are nocturnal and shy, making them difficult to find at the best of times.
It appears so unlike other mammals because it is a member of the monotremes — an egg-laying group that separated from the rest of the mammal tree-of-life about 200 million years ago.
Conservation status
- IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered
- CITES : Appendix II

Q1) What is echidna?

It is a type of monotreme, which is a group of egg-laying mammals. There are four species of echidnas, and they are native to Australia and New Guinea. They are also known as spiny anteaters. The four species are the short-beaked echidna (found in Australia and New Guinea) and three species of long-beaked echidnas (found in New Guinea).

Source: Elusive Attenborough echidna rediscovered in Indonesia