There is optimism amidst the uncertainties and challenges of science and
nature that have lately surfaced.
Dispelling rumors of its demise, scientists have seen footage of an extinct
egg-laying animal named for Sir David Attenborough for the first time.
After being thought to be extinct, a species bearing Sir David
Attenborough's name has been found after being seen on camera for the first
time.
Until recently, the only evidence of the Zaglossus attenboroughi species'
existence was a museum specimen of a dead animal that had been kept over
several decades.
However, on a trip to Indonesia, a few researchers from Oxford University
managed to record four quick three-second videos of Attenborough's
long-beaked echidna, a spiky, fuzzy animal with a characteristic beak.
Echidnas, sometimes called "living fossils," are thought to have coexisted
alongside dinosaurs on Earth 200 million years ago, when they first
appeared.
Oxford University scientist Dr. James Kempton told BBC News, "I was
ecstatic, the whole team was ecstatic."
"When I say that everything hinged on the very last SD card we examined,
from the very last camera we gathered, on the very last day of our
expedition, I'm not kidding."
Here is a video of an echidna being captured on camera:
James stated that he was "absolutely delighted" to hear of the rediscovery
and that he had corresponded with Sir David in writing about it.
Over the course of a month, the scientist oversaw an expedition that
traveled into unexplored areas of the Cyclops Mountains, an untamed
rainforest environment located 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) above sea
level.
In addition to finding Attenborough's "lost echidna," the expedition
documented flourishing populations of birds of paradise and tree kangaroos
and revealed new species of insects and frogs.
There are four species of echidna, with three having long beaks. They are
the only mammal that can lay eggs, only surpassed in this regard by the
duck-billed platypus.
The Attenborough and western echidnas are the two that are considered to be
extremely endangered.
The Attenborough echidna may have been present in the Cyclops Mountains
during previous expeditions, as shown by "nose pokes" in the ground, but
inaccessible isolated locations precluded conclusive evidence of its
existence.
The revelation was said to have Sir David "absolutely delighted."
As a result, for the last 62 years, the only proof of the Attenborough
echidna's existence has been a specimen safely kept at the Netherlands'
natural history museum, Naturalis' Treasure Room.
Naturalis' collection manager, Pepijn Kamminga, stated to the British
broadcaster that upon its discovery, some speculated that it could have
already gone extinct because it was the sole one.
"Well, this is amazing news—the rediscovery."
Before Kempton's team found the long-lost species of hedgehog-like creature
in the far-off Indonesian mountains, the researchers endured malaria, an
earthquake, and even a leech attaching itself to one of the team members'
eyeballs.
Working together with the Yongsu Sapari community, the scientists traversed
and investigated the inaccessible regions of northeastern Papua.
The echidna is significant to the local way of life. Elders from Yongsu
Sapari have reported a custom in which disputes are settled by sending one
party to the ocean to locate a marlin and another into the forest to look
for the creature.
Both animals are said to be elusive, often taking a generation or more to
find, but once located, they represent the end of fighting and the
restoration of peaceful relationships.
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