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Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna rediscovered in Indonesia
- hfv68 3y agoThat conflict resolution method is pretty creative. Thanks for posting!
- koolba 3y agoThe egg laying by the females is interesting. But what’s four times as interesting is the structure of the male’s business end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna
- vasco 3y ago> Male echidnas have a four-headed penis. During mating, the heads on one side "shut down" and do not grow in size; the other two are used to release semen into the female's two-branched reproductive tract. Each time it copulates, it alternates heads in sets of two. When not in use, the penis is retracted inside a preputial sac in the cloaca. The male echidna's penis is 7 centimetres (2.8 in) long when erect, and its shaft is covered with penile spines. These may be used to induce ovulation in the female.
- askonomm 3y agoHoly crap. Tell me again why the heck are we so interested in trying to find aliens when we have plenty bizarre stuff walking the earth with us?
- TheGoddessInari 3y agoBecause the aliens are already here, just like the echidna...
- lakpan 3y agoWith plenty of bizarre stuff on earth, my pet peeve is having aliens depicted as anthropomorphic.
- m463 3y agoThat's what I thought the first time I went snorkeling in tropical waters. It's too bad population seems to crowd out the majority of wildlife on the ground. If it wasn't for birds, a majority of people wouldn't see much backyard wildlife, ever.
- dillydogg 3y agoThe back legs of an echidna face backwards too! https://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/short-beaked-echidna/characteristics https://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/short-beaked-echi...
- DrBazza 3y agoNamed after Sir. David Attenborough no less. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67382235 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67382235
- lmpdev 3y agoI didn’t realise there was a fourth species I had to rescue a horny short nosed one which had trapped itself between gutters on a high speed road while looking for a mate a few years ago These things are STRONG. The spikes aren’t much of a concern if you’re trying to pick one up, but it’s essentially a sphere of pure muscle and bones
- bitwize 3y agoIf you tangle with an Echidna Warrior, get ready for a fight. Highlight of my Australia Zoo visit was seeing a zookeeper holding an echidna like a baby and feeding her honey.
- cookie_monsta 3y ago> I had to rescue a horny short nosed one which had trapped itself between gutters on a high speed road while looking for a mate a few years ago Love a good dangling modifier. Did you end up finding your mate?
- stephenr 3y agoHe found a horny echidna, I think he found a new mate.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Jedd 3y ago> I didn’t realise there was a fourth species Hang on, which are you calling the fourth? A popular pub-trivia question is how many types of (living) monotremes are there - two (echidna and platypus). However if the question is how many (living) monotreme species - then (well, up until now) the answer was four - the platypus, plus three species of echidna (Western, Sir David's, and Eastern).
- adaml_623 3y agoBBC article on the same news: "Of the four echidna species three have long beaks, with the Attenborough echidna, and the western echidna considered critically endangered." We need references stay!
- Affric 3y agoStrange to see West Papua plainly described as Indonesia. It’s a great video. The feeling of euphoria is very real and in the vast and in the isolated jungles of Maritime South East Asia there is a little thrill knowing just how isolated you are. On an island. In a jungle. Miles from the airport via river and foot. On a mountain.
- singingfish 3y ago> Strange to see West Papua plainly described as Indonesia Yeah I did a double take on this too.
- nickff 3y agoIs the strange part that they used the (politically designated) country name rather than the (geographically oriented) island name? This seems normal to me, as journalists frequently describe locations by political names. Who calls the area West Papua? The Indonesians seem to refer to it as "Western New Guinea", and "Papua" seems to be an antiquated term used to refer to some part(s) of the island of New Guinea.
- elemenopy 3y agoIt is a politically fraught issue because there is a long-running independence movement,[1] which the parent comment may have been obliquely referring to. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Papua_Movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Papua_Movement
- markdown 3y ago> Who calls the area West Papua? The natives of West Papua who are being genocided out of existence by their colonial overlords in Indonesia.
- stubish 3y agoGiven the geography of Indonesia, it seems necessary to use more specific place names, like we do for Borneo or Galapagos. The term 'Indonesian' becomes meaningless in many contexts because the scope is so vast.
- elromulous 3y agoThis animal would be so much more obscure if it weren't for Sega's publicity campaign [0]. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuckles_the_Echidna https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuckles_the_Echidna
- ssss11 3y agoWow I had no idea Knuckles was supposed to be an echidna! Ha
- sphars 3y agoKnuckles is the only reason I know that there is an actual animal called an echidna
- brian_herman 3y agoSame
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ImaCake 3y agoEchidnas are known to essentially everyone in Australia. I would say most bushwalkers I know have seen them before as they are not difficult to find. It surprises me that they are not so well known outside Australia.
- divbzero 3y ago> The echidna is embedded in the local culture, including a tradition that states conflicts are resolved by sending one party to a disagreement into the forest to search for the mammal and another to the ocean to find a marlin, according to Yongsu Sapari elders cited by the university. Both creatures were seen as so difficult to find that it would often take decades or a generation to locate them. But once found, the animals symbolized the end of the conflict and a return to harmonious relationships. If only all worldly conflicts could be resolved so peacefully.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tremon 3y agoDo we know which conflicts were resolved by this sighting?
- dudeinjapan 3y agoThe console war between SNES and Sega Genesis is hereby resolved with the sighting of Knuckles the Echidna.
- davidw 3y ago> Kempton's team survived an earthquake, malaria and even a leech attached to an eyeball during their trip Yeeeash...
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoYeah, that one really stood out to me, though leech eyeball guy has a great story for life.
- Tao3300 3y agoWorth it. Boss hugged me when we found out the camera caught an echidna.
- tiahura 3y agoSeems like it would be an easy meal for all sorts of predators.
- zabzonk 3y agoapart from being covered in spines, living in a burrow, and only coming out at night?
- justatdotin 3y agoRare monotreme rediscovered in *Indonesian-occupied West Papua. Merdeka!
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoI wonder if they'll be able to get a breeding pair in captivity somehow, or at least ensure a prospering stable wild population...
- _jwfergus 3y agoSemi-terrestrial shrimp.
- lemak 3y agoI hope Indonesians start appreciating more what they have. Although I doubt this is possible without significantly improving their living standard first. There is open wildlife trade on the Sunday market near my place. Birds, monkeys, lizards, snakes, sugar gliders, and some unknown to me "things". The nearest police office is about 20 meters from it.
- rex_lupi 3y agoExport of "exotics" to markets in EU & USA is rampant from Indonesia. CITES protection is often not enough
- gizajob 3y agoEchidna part of local folklore for thousands of years. Attenborough comes along making a tv show. Gets named after him.
- pvaldes 3y agoEverybody says echidna is cool, it lays eggs, echidna is this, echidna is that... nobody aws about the poor lowland streaked tenrec