Zaglossus attenboroughi Flannery & Groves, 1998:387
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)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
The "rediscovery" consisted of indirect signs, and thus the animal itself has not been spotted since 1961 (Baillie et al., 2009).
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., 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, 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.
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
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/6503/zaglossus-attenboroughi