Friday Xenartha Blogging – Echidna Survival

Posted on July 20, 2007 in Xenartha

Technically, the echidna isn’t a true anteater — that is not a member of the Xenartha — but it is worth our while to state that one variety of echidna — the long-beaked echidna of New Guinea — has been recently discovered to be ~not extinct~:

The long-beaked echidna named after well-known broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, Zaglossus Attenboroughi, was previously only known to science through a 1961 museum specimen.

Now a Zoological Society of London (ZSL) expedition to the Cyclops mountains on Papua island has identified the animals’ burrows and their ‘nose pokes’ – the holes in the ground made by the echidnas as they use their long noses to search for worms.

“We hope that Sir David Attenborough will be delighted to hear that his namesake species is still surviving in the wilds of the Papuan jungle,” Dr Jonathan Baillie of the ZSL said.

Hoorah-hoorah!