annual report - The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

SIR DAVID’S LONG-BEAkED EChIDNA
Zaglossus attenboroughi
Critically Endangered
Indonesia
$10,000
ANNUAL REPORT 2010 PAGE 46
Red list justification
Its extent of occurrence is less than 100
km 2 , all individuals are in a single location,
there is continuing decline in the extent
and quality of its habitat, and a decline in
the number of mature individuals due to
hunting.
SIR DAVID’S LONG-BEAkED
EChIDNA
Zaglossus attenboroughi
SIR DAVID’S LONG-BEAkED EChIDNA IS ONLy kNOWN TO
SCIENCE FROM A SINGLE SPECIMEN COLLECTED IN 1961,
BUT RESEARChERS BELIEVE IT IS NOT ExTINCT BECAUSE OF
RECENTLy DISCOVERED “NOSE POkE” EVIDENCE. SCIENTISTS,
AS RECENTLy AS 2007, FOUND IMPRESSIONS OF ThE
EChIDNA’S BEAk IN MUD WhERE IT hAD FORAGED FOR EARTh
WORMS NEAR A VILLAGE ON ThE SAME MOUNTAIN PEAk
WhERE IT WAS FIRST DISCOVERED 50 yEARS AGO. ThIS
EChIDNA IS hUNTED By LOCAL VILLAGERS AND ITS MEAT IS
USED IN RITUALIZED PEACE OFFERINGS TO RIVALS.
ThIS SPECIES REPRESENTS
A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF
EVOLUTIONARy hISTORy.
FOSSIL RECORDS INDICATE
ThAT IT hAS ChANGED
VERy LITTLE IN ThE LAST
100M yEARS AND IT
IS ONE OF ONLy FIVE
ExISTING EGG-LAyING
MAMMALS.
Photo Credit:Craig Turner
Echidna habitat
PROJECT DETAILS:
The grant helped develop monitoring
protocols to measure population numbers,
measure the significance of hunting and
feral pigs as threats to survival, identify
in-situ field agents to continue the
monitoring programme and additional
geographic sites the species may inhabit.
RESULTS:
Data gathered from local community
interviews indicate that the main threat to
the species is from hunting. However, the
presence of apparently healthy populations
of avian ‘megafauna’ (e.g. cassowaries,
megapodes, hornbills) in the immediate
vicinity of active villages in the Cyclops
region demonstrates that long-term human
forest usage by indigenous communities
may be sustainable, suggesting that
valuable lessons could be learned for
tropical forest conservation from local
subsistence practices.
HOW THE MOHAMED
BIN ZAYED SPECIES
CONSERVATION FUND
HAS HELPED
“This project has allowed us to gather new
baseline data on long-beaked echidna
occurrence and threats, and work directly
with local partners and communities
to design a long-term conservation
programme to protect this culturally
significant species and its habitat.”
“The time I spent with local communities
in the Cyclops Mountain region helped me
to gain a greater understanding of local
people’s traditions, needs and aspirations,
and factor these into the design of the
longer-term conservation project.”
Carly Waterman
Zoological Society of London
ANNUAL REPORT 2010 PAGE 47