Using local ecological knowledge to locate the western long-beaked echidna Zaglossus bruijnii on the Vogelkop Peninsula,West Papua, Indonesia FREDDY PA TTISE LAN N O ,I RIANSUL
PAUL A. BARNES and AGUSTIN A Y. S . AROB AYA
Abstract The Critically Endangered western long-beaked echidna Zaglossus bruijnii is believed to be distributed throughout the Vogelkop Peninsula in the Indonesian Province of West Papua, but there had formerly been no confirmed sightings of the species since the 1980s. We aimed to establish whether the species survives in this area. Fieldwork was carried out during January–April 2018 in Tambrauw Regency in the north and Teluk Bintuni Regency in the south. Fieldwork involved informal inter- views with people, identified through chain referral sam- pling, who were knowledgeable about local animals and plants. Interviewees were asked about their knowledge of the western long-beaked echidna and if they had encoun- tered them locally. Thirteen interviewees were familiar with the species and we were able to confirm informant re- cords of one individual in Tambrauw Regency and three in Teluk Bintuni
Regency.Measurements of the three individual echidnas in Teluk Bintuni Regency corroborated previous de- scriptions of the species. Interviewees described how echid- nas are often seen in the forests around villages, especially during the wet season during January–April, when their foraging signs are easy to distinguish from those of other animals. These four records of the western long-beaked echidna are the first confirmed sightings since the 1980s. They suggest the species persists on the Vogelkop Penin- sula, and anecdotal information from the interviewees sug- gests the species remains common. Nevertheless, detailed
FREDDY PATTISELANNO*† (Corresponding author,
orcid.org/0000-0002-3207-
5934,
f.pattiselanno@
unipa.ac.id) Laboratory of Wildlife and Tropical Animal, Faculty of Animal Sciences Universitas Papua, Jl. Gunung Salju Amban Manokwari, West Papua 98314, Indonesia
IRIANSUL Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine West Papua Provincial Office, Manokwari, Papua Barat, Indonesia
PAUL A. BARNES‡ (
orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-5800) EDGE of Existence Programme, Zoological Society London, London, UK
AGUSTINAY. S. AROBAYA (
orcid.org/0000-0003-4602-4289) Faculty of Forestry Universitas Papua, Manokwari, Papua Barat, Indonesia
*Also at: College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia †Also at: Biodiversity Research Centre, Universitas Papua, Manokwari, Papua Barat, Indonesia ‡Also at: Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
Received 28 October 2020. Revision requested 21 January 2021. Accepted 12 March 2021. First published online 29 November 2021.
systematic surveys are required before any assertion about the status of this species can be made with confidence.
Keywords Critically Endangered, Indonesia, local ecological knowledge, New Guinea, West Papua, western long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bruijnii
the platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus in the family Ornithorhynchidae. These species are exclusive to Tas- mania, Australia and New Guinea, which lie on a conti- nental shelf that has been periodically connected at times of low sea level. The four echidna species include the short-beaked echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus and three allopatric long-beaked echidna species of the genus Zaglo- ssus (Flannery & Groves, 1998): the eastern long-beaked echidna Z. bartoni, Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna Z. attenboroughi, and the western long-beaked echidna Z.
bruijnii.Attenborough’s and thewesternlong-beaked echid- nas are recognized as top priorities for global mammal conservation by the Zoological Society of London’s Edge of Existence programme because of their unique evolution- ary history and Critically Endangered status. Currently, the three long-beaked echidnas are known only from New Guinea and a few small offshore islands, although there is speculation that a remnant population of thewestern long- beaked echidna may persist in the West Kimberley region of Australia (Helgen et al., 2012). All three long-beaked echidnas are threatened across their range and there is little information about their status, and thus making even rudimentary decisions concerning their conservation is challenging.
T Long-beaked echidnas are threatened by hunting, which
was formerly carried out for subsistence throughout New Guinea (Pattiselanno, 2006; Leary et al., 2016; Pattiselanno & Koibur, 2018). More recently, habitat loss as a result of logging, agriculture, industrial plantations, and mining also pose threats, not least because they increase oppor- tunity for more intensive hunting as new areas of forest are made accessible to settlers and temporary residents (Pattiselanno & Koibur, 2018; Gaveau, 2019). The western long-beaked echidna is believed to be distributed through- out the Vogelkop Peninsula in the Indonesian Province
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oryx, 2022, 56(4), 636–638 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605321000351
he five extant species of egg-laying mammal include four echidna species in the family Tachyglossidae and
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