Zaglossus attenboroughi Flannery & Groves, 1998:387
Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, Attenborough's echidna, Cyclops long-beaked echidna, Sir David's long-beaked echidna
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
The distinctiveness of Z. attenboroughi from Z. bartoni needs investigating, as the former may be a subspecies or morph of the latter (Leary et al., 2016).
Conservation Status
Last record: 1961 (Fisher & Blomberg, 2012)
Rediscovered in: May 2007 (indirect signs; ethnoknowledge) (Baillie et al., 2009); 2023 (on camera trap) (Morib et al., 2025)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
Distribution
Berg Rara, Cyclops Mountains, New Guinea
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Flannery, Timothy F. and Groves, Colin P. (1988). A revision of the genus Zaglossus (Monotremata, Tachyglossidae), with description of new species and subspecies. Mammalia 62: 367-396. https://doi.org/10.1515/mamm.1998.62.3.367
Other references:
Baillie, Jonathan E. M. and Butcher, Ellen R. (2012). Priceless or Worthless? The world’s most threatened species. London, UK: Zoological Society of London.
Baillie, Jonathan E. M., Turvey, Samuel T. and Waterman, Carly. (2009). Survival of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi) in New Guinea. Oryx 43(1): 146-148.
Fisher, Diana O. and Blomberg, Simone P. [as Simon P.] (2012). Inferring Extinction of Mammals from Sighting Records, Threats, and Biological Traits. Conservation Biology 26(1): 57-67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01797.x
Flannery, Timothy F. (1995). Mammals of New Guinea, 2nd ed. Sydney, Australia: Australian Museum / Reed New Holland.
Flannery, Timothy F., McCurry, Matthew R., Rich, Thomas H., Vickers-Rich, Patricia, Smith, Elizabeth T. and Helgen, Kristofer M. (2024). A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2024.2348753
Leary, T., Seri, L., Flannery, T., Wright, D., Hamilton, S., Helgen, K., Singadan, R., Menzies, J., Allison, A., James, R., Aplin, K., Salas, L. and Dickman, C. (2008). Zaglossus attenboroughi. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 24 February 2013.
Leary, T., Seri, L., Flannery, T., Wright, D., Hamilton, S., Helgen, K., Singadan, R., Menzies, J., Allison, A., James, R., Aplin, K., Salas, L. and Dickman, C. (2016). Zaglossus attenboroughi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T136322A21964353. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T136322A21964353.en. Accessed on 14 May 2023.
Lee, T. E., Fisher, D. O., Blomberg, S. P. and Wintle, B. A. (2017). Extinct or still out there? Disentangling influences on extinction and rediscovery helps to clarify the fate of species on the edge. Global Change Biology 23(2): 621-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13421
Main, Douglas. (2023, 10 November). Part echidna, part anteater and mole: Researchers confirm bizarre creature lives. The Sydney Morning Herald (online). Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/part-echidna-part-anteater-and-mole-researchers-confirm-bizarre-creature-lives-20231110-p5ej5c.html [Accessed 10 November 2023]
Morib, G. et al. (2025). Attenborough’s echidna rediscovered by combining Indigenous knowledge with camera-trapping. npj Biodiversity 4: 19. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44185-025-00086-6
Scheffers, Brett R., Yong, Ding Li, Harris, J. Berton C., Giam, Xingli and Sodhi, Navjot S. (2011). The world’s rediscovered species: back from the brink? PLoS ONE 6(7): e22531. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022531 [Supporting Information (Table S1)]
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/6503/zaglossus-attenboroughi