‘EUPHORIA’

Long Lost Egg-Laying Mammal Named After David Attenborough Rediscovered

It was spotted for the first time in over 60 years.

An egg-laying mammal named after British naturalist Sir David Attenborough that was feared to have gone extinct has been spotted in the wild for the first time in more than 60 years. Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna—a bizarre-looking creature with the feet of a mole, the spines of a hedgehog, and the snout of an anteater—was photographed for the first time on a trail camera in Indonesia’s remote Cyclops Mountains. The echidna species has only been scientifically recorded once before, in 1961, but was sighted again on the last day of a four-week expedition in the mountains led by researchers from Oxford University. “There was a great sense of euphoria, and also relief having spent so long in the field with no reward until the very final day,” said James Kempton, a biologist who found the images of the last memory card retrieved from more than 80 remote cameras.