Zaglossus bruijni

Geographic Range

Western long-beaked echidnas ( Zaglossus bruijnii ) are primarily endemic to New Guinea and Indonesia with speculative reports of remnant populations in Northwestern Australia, though they are largely considered extinct on the Australian continent despite the reports.

In Indonesia, these echidnas are limited to the island of West Papua, primarily on the Vogelkop Peninsula. This range mainly stretches throughout the islands’ interior, absent along the northern coast. Their range extends south towards the lowlands, but they are not present in the lowlands. They range completely from the east to west coast. However, their persistence across this range isn’t well known.

Long-beaked echidnas are confirmed to inhabit the Arfak Mountains, Fak Fak regency, Tamarau Mountains and potentially in the Charles Louis Mountain range (central Papua Province), as well as the Batana and Waigo islands to the west.

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian australian
  • native native

Habitat

Long-beaked echidnas are terrestrial and live in tropical forest environments, inhabiting the humid underbrush. These rainforests are characterized by high rainfall and humidity, moderate temperatures, and an environment suitable for burrowing and foraging in soft soil. Long-beaked echidnas forage in the thick leaf litter of the forest floor. These echidnas are most commonly found in microhabitats with loose nutrient rich soil and a rich undergrowth of ferns and mosses. These echidnas live at elevations from sea level (0 meters) to generally 3,000 meters; however, they have been reported at elevations as high as 4,150 meters.

• Habitat Regions
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest rainforest
• mountains mountains

Physical Description

Western long-beaked echidnas are the largest of the echidnas, reaching 40 cm to 90 cm in total length (snout to tail) and weighing between 5 kg to 16 kg. Their snout of 7 cm to 9 cm is the longest of all species in the genus and has a downward curve that is used to “poke” the soil. Their tail length ranges from 5 to 9 cm, while their hind foot length is 4 to 5 cm. These echidnas do not exhibit sexual dimorphism.

The most notable feature of western long-beaked echidnas is the long tubular tongue that is coated in sticky mucus that helps capture prey. They lack teeth, instead using a keratinous plate in their mouth to grind food. These echidnas are covered in coarse fur with many hairs modified into short spines throughout their body. Their main coat color ranges from dark to light brown, providing camouflage in their habitat.

Western long-beaked echidna forelimbs are designed for digging in the ground, equipped with 3 rear and 5 forelimb claws. They have a waddling gait, slow and intentional, built for digging and rummaging rather than speed. The hind limbs of the Western long-beaked echidnas are smaller compared to their forelimbs. They also lack external ears instead of having slits behind their eyes for hearing.

Young western long-beaked echidnas hatch from eggs. At hatching, young are 1.5 to 2 cm long, weighing 1-2 g. They are initially hairless and spineless (modified hairs), developing fine hairs across several weeks. Spines also grow for several weeks post-hatching, while the young are still in the pouch; spine growth is a gradual process.

Compared to non-monotreme mammals, these echidnas have an unusually low body temperature (between 28°C and 35°C) and low metabolic rate (6.493 watts). They, like the other echidna species, develop a small false pouch used for hatching and raising their young. This false pouch only appears on females during the mating season on their abdomen and is excess skin that is folded over.

Western long-beaked echidnas and short-beaked echidnas ( Tachyglossus aculeatus ) look similar, but beak length is the main distinguishing feature. Short-beaked echidna snouts are typically 6 to 7 cm, about 2 cm shorter than long-beaked echidnas. Further, the spines on short-beaked echidnas are more numerous than long-beaked echidnas.

As with other monotremes, western long-beaked echidnas exhibit incomplete homeothermy, meaning they do not maintain a constant body temperature like placental mammals. Their body temperature fluctuates with environmental factors. This adaptation helps conserve energy, particularly in cold environments. Unlike complete homeotherms, western long-beaked echidnas can enter torpor, reducing their metabolic rate and body temperature to cope with food scarcity or extreme temperature.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• heterothermic heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• sexes shaped differently

Development

Long-beaked echidnas are monotremes that develop in a manner distinct from marsupials and placental mammals. Long-beaked echidnas hatch from eggs; the young, called puggles, are highly altricial and remain in the mother’s pouch for approximately 50 days. During this time, they rely on maternal milk, which is secreted from specialized mammary glands, as monotremes lack nipples. As the puggles grow, they develop protective spines and are eventually transferred out of the pouch and into a burrow. The mothers continue to provide nourishment until they are fully weaned at around seven months of age. Juvenile long-beaked echidnas exhibit slow growth rates, due to their low metabolic rates and energy-efficient lifestyle. Their development is influenced by environmental factors, including temperature and food availability, which impacts the duration of maternal care and independence. The age these echidnas reach sexual maturity is unknown but short-beaked echidnas ( Tachyglossus aculeatus ) are mature 5-12 years of age. All echidnas exhibit determinate growth.

Reproduction

Echidnas exhibit a unique reproductive strategy characterized by a polygynandrous mating system. Courtship involves prolonged physical contact and competition among males. Males compete for access to females by forming mating trains, in which several males follow a receptive female for extended periods. This behavior increases the likelihood of successful copulation. Male echidnas have a highly specialized, bifurcated penis adapted for internal fertilization, and their reproductive anatomy suggests sperm competition plays a significant role in their mating success. When compared to body weight, testes size indicates that sperm competition is a driving factor in their reproductive strategies.

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous) polygynandrous (promiscuous)

During the breeding season (April-May), long-beaked echidnas become more active and display increased movements in search of mates. Courtship involves prolonged physical contact and competition among males. After fertilization, females lay a single leathery egg in their pouch, where it remains for about 10 days before hatching. Birth weight for western long-beaked echidnas is approximately 1-2 grams. Post-hatching, the females provide continuous care, secreting milk that the puggles consume until the pups are sufficiently developed to leave the pouch. They take around 2 months to fledging, the juveniles are then moved to a burrow where they will grow for up to 7 months before leaving the den. The reproductive cycle is infrequent, with females typically breeding once every two to three years. Age of sexual maturity is unknown in western long-beaked echidnas but in short-beaked echidnas ( Tachyglossus aculeatus ) both males and females reach maturity between 5-12 years of age.

Western long-beaked echidnas are iteroparous, meaning they reproduce multiple times throughout their lives. Like all monotremes, they exhibit internal fertilization, with mating likely occurring through cloacal contact. They are oviparous, the young are typically 1.5 to 2 cm at hatching. They weigh 1-2 g at hatching similar to other echidna species.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• oviparous oviparous

Parental investment in echidnas is entirely maternal. The females provide all care from egg incubation to weaning. The mothers carry the egg in their pouch until hatching and continue to protect and nourish the puggles within the pouch for approximately two months. Once the juvenile develops spines, the mother deposits it in a burrow, where she returns periodically to nurse it. This maternal investment lasts for up to seven months, after which the young echidna becomes independent. Males provide no parental investment beyond the act of mating.

• Parental Investment
• female parental care female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

Western long-beaked echidnas have an estimated lifespan comparable to other echidnas and monotremes of between 30-40 years. Due to their elusive nature and limited study, precise data on their longevity in both the wild and captivity remain scarce.

Western long-beaked echidnas face threats such as predation, habitat destruction, and human hunting, which may reduce their average lifespan in the wild. Despite their relatively long lifespan, their low reproductive rate, with females producing only one offspring every few years, makes population level recovery difficult.

There are very limited data on the lifespan of these echidnas in captivity due to their rarity in zoological collections. The few records of captive long-beaked echidnas suggest that with proper care they may live well beyond 40 years. There is a western long-beaked echidna at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney Australia who is nearly 60 years old as of 2024.

One major challenge in captivity is replicating their specialized diet and natural foraging behavior, which can impact their health and lifespan. Additionally, stress from captivity is likely, as monotremes are highly sensitive to environmental changes.

Behavior

Western long-beaked echidnas are deliberate and slow foragers, feeding on soil-dwelling prey. They probe or “poke” the soil with their snouts and dig up their food. Once prey is located, they use their sticky tongues to capture and grind up their food. While long-beaked echidnas move more during the mating season they are not migratory, simply covering more territory to mate. The males have no role in raising young beyond mating while the females provide all the parental care. Mating occurs once every two to three years with their several month-long parental investment.

Western long-beaked do not interact frequently outside of mating. Their vision is poor, but their eyes are adapted to function effectively in low-light conditions, aligning with their crepuscular and nocturnal activity patterns.

They do not vocalize as a form of communication; instead, they use pheromones and scent marking, Physical interactions such as pushing and posturing play a role in social encounters. When threatened, they adopt defensive behaviors such as curling into a ball or burrowing rapidly to expose their spines as a deterrent to predators.

Echidnas move with a characteristic slow, deliberate gait adapted for digging and traversing rugged terrain. They excavate burrows efficiently, providing shelter from predators and extreme weather conditions.

• Key Behaviors
• nocturnal nocturnal
• crepuscular crepuscular
• motile motile
• solitary solitary

Home Range

Studies on the home range of long-beaked echidnas indicate significant variation depending on habitat type and resource availability. Individuals cover extensive distances in search of food and suitable den sites. The home range size varies by factors such as food abundance, terrain, and seasonal changes. Males generally exhibit larger home ranges than females, likely due to their search for mates.

Unlike some other mammals, long-beaked echidnas do not exhibit strong territorial behavior, though there may be occasional overlap in home ranges with minimal direct competition outside of mating.

Communication and Perception

Western long-beaked echidnas rarely interact with each other outside of mating seasons, choosing a solitary lifestyle. When they do interact, they use visual and tactile responses to mate. They rely on their olfactory senses, electroreception and tactile senses to move through the world around them.

Western long-beaked echidnas have a well-developed sense of smell to sense environmental cues and to forage. The long snout carries electroreceptors that allow them to pick up on the electrical signals of prey in the soil. These receptors allow them to hunt without relying on their vision. They rely on specialized mechanoreceptors in their snouts to detect soil vibrations, giving them a highly developed sense of touch. These echidnas exhibit poor eyesight, in line with their crepuscular and nocturnal habits, their visual structures and sensitivity to specific wavelength ranges are optimized for ideal perception under moonlight.

These echidnas do not vocalize as a method of communication and are typically silent. Instead, they use scent or pheromone marking to communicate, more specifically during mating season to indicate reproductive status.

Body language may also be a large portion of their communication during encounters. They push into one another and posture defensively such as curling up or digging into the soil to expose their spines more aggressively when feeling threatened.

• Communication Channels
• tactile tactile
• chemical chemical
• electric electric

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones pheromones
• scent marks scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Western long-beaked echidnas are foragers that mostly eat earthworms and other invertebrates such as insect larvae. Their diet selectively included larger soil-dwelling invertebrates, such as insect larvae and other soft-bodied insects.

They use their specialized and elongated snouts to “poke” the soil of the forest floor to search for food. They use their sticky tongue to grab the worms and other prey. They do not chew their food; instead, they grind prey with the hardened keratin plate in their mouth.

Western long-beaked echidnas in captivity have shown that their foraging is deliberate and slow. They probe the ground with their snouts and dig with their fore limbs for most of their day, using their sense of smell and electroreceptors to locate prey. Their electroreceptors allow them to pick up on the weak electrical signals of their prey similarly to the way platypus hunt, though echidnas have fewer of these receptors.

• Primary Diet
• carnivore carnivore
  • insectivore insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • vermivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• terrestrial worms

Predation

Long-beaked echidnas face predation from a variety of natural predators, with threats varying by location and habitat type. Their primary defenses include spines, burrowing behavior, and nocturnal activity, which help minimize encounters with predators.

Dingos ( Canis lupus dingo ) in some regions of Australia and Papua New Guinea are known to prey upon echidnas. They use their strong jaws to try and extract echidnas from burrows or flip them over to expose the softer underside. In coastal and wetland habitats, long-beaked echidnas may occasionally fall prey to saltwater crocodiles ( Crocodylus porosus ), particularly when foraging near water sources. New Guinea singing dogs ( Canis hallstromi ) are opportunistic predators that may target young or vulnerable echidnas. Amethystine pythons ( Morelia amethistina ) are one of the largest snakes in their range. Amethystine pythons have been reported to constrict and consume echidnas, though such incidents appear rare. Long-beaked echidnas are sometimes hunted by humans ( Homo sapiens ) for their meat and spines, which are used in traditional practices. Hunting pressure varies by region, with some indigenous communities considering echidnas a delicacy while they are also trafficked for exotic pet trade.

Long-beaked echidnas employ several methods to protect themselves from predation such as cryptic behavior; their nocturnal and crepuscular activity patterns reduce encounters with diurnal predators. They also use burrowing and digging when threatened; echidnas rapidly dig into soil or wedge themselves under logs and rocks, exposing their spiny backs. Their sharp, keratinous spines act as a formidable deterrent against many predators, making them difficult to handle and consume.

Ecosystem Roles

Western long-beaked echidnas play an important role in their ecosystems as soil engineers. They use their powerful claws and elongated snouts to dig into the earth in search of food which aerates the soil and contributes to nutrient cycling. This foraging behavior aids in soil health and promotes plant growth, indirectly supporting other species eating earthworms and other arthropods. Additionally, their nests and burrows may provide shelter for smaller animals if they are available. As prey, they also contribute to the diet of larger predators, although their spiny exterior provides substantial protection against most natural threats.

Western long-beaked echidnas have had reported cases of the tick Bothriocroton oudemansi in the Fakfak province. Fleas Echidnophaga liopus also have been documented in the genus.

• Ecosystem Impact
• soil aeration soil aeration

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Although rarely interacting with human populations, western long-beaked echidnas have some indirect economic benefits. They contribute to ecotourism in Papua New Guinea and West Papua, where they are considered unique and rare fauna as well as eaten by certain communities. Their presence in the ecosystem supports biodiversity, which can benefit conservation-related economic activities. Additionally, scientific research on monotremes has contributed to advances in evolutionary biology and reproductive science.

Their rarity and slow reproductive rate have also led to illegal wildlife trade, with reported cases of trafficking. This illegal trade poses conservation and ethical concerns rather than widespread economic burdens.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade pet trade
• food food
• ecotourism ecotourism
• research and education

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Western long-beaked echidnas. are occasionally considered minor agricultural nuisances, as they may disturb soil while foraging for invertebrates.

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Conservation Status

The western long-beaked echidna is listed as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN Red List. They are included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), making trade monitored and regulated to prevent overexploitation. They have no special conservation status under the United States Endangered Species Act or on the State of Michigan List.

The main threats to western long-beaked echidnas are habitat loss and overhunting. Logging, mining, and the expansion of agriculture in New Guinea have led to increasing habitat fragmentation and breakdown. In addition, these echidnas are widely hunted for bushmeat, both for subsistence and cultural purposes, and dogs are often used to locate them. Although commercial hunting is illegal under Indonesian law, traditional hunting practices continue unregulated.

Conservation efforts for the species are limited but present. Some populations occur within protected areas in Papua, Indonesia, which offers a degree of protection from habitat destruction and human impact. The listing under CITES helps regulate international trade, although local enforcement can be uneven. Currently, there are no active and ongoing captive breeding programs specifically for western long-beaked echidnas.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Michael Brown (author), Radford University, Natalie May (editor), Radford University, Alexander McVicker (editor), Radford University, Karen Powers (editor), Radford University, Tanya Dewey (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

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