Endangered egg-laying mammal seen for the first time in over 60 years

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

An expedition through an unpredictable, perilous mountain range in Indonesia’s province of Papua led to the rediscovery of a critically endangered egg-laying mammal that hasn’t been seen for more than 60 years.

For the researchers of Expedition Cyclops, Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna — a bizarre-looking, quill-covered creature with powerful digging feet — is a symbol of the biodiversity that can be rediscovered in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains.

On a nine-week expedition, a 25-person crew battled malaria and earthquakes, and one student researcher even had a leech stuck in their eye for 33 hours.

“Climbing those mountains I like to think of as climbing a ladder whose rungs are made of rotting wood, with rails cladded in spikes and thorns, and a frame shrouded by sunken vines and falling rocks,” said team leader James Kempton of Oxford.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/endangered-egg-laying-mammal-seen-234841710.html

[2naSalit]

1. Looks like a...

Cross between a hedgehog and an aardvark.

[keithbvadu2]

2. To stay around, it had to retreat to a horrible location where only dedicated folks could find it.

Dedicated enough to risk a leech in their eye.

[hunter]

3. That's a horrible observation...

... unfortunately true.

What's worse, as more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are dumped into the atmosphere no species will be safe from man, no matter where they might live, from mountains to the depths of the ocean.