The eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni), also known as Barton's long-beaked echidna, is one of three species from the genus Zaglossus to occur in New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. It is found mainly in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 at elevations between 2000 and 3000 m (6,561.7 and 9,842.5 ft).

It can be distinguished from other members of the genus by the number of claws on the fore and hind feet: it has five claws on its fore feet and four on its hind feet. Its weight varies from 5 to 10 kg (11 to 22 lb); its body length ranges from 60 to 100 cm (23.6 to 39.4 in); it has no tail. It has dense black fur. The species is the largest monotreme

Monotreme

Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials and placental mammals...

and is slow-moving. It rolls into a spiny ball for defence.

There are four recognised subspecies:

• Z. bartoni bartoni
• Z. bartoni clunius
• Z. bartoni smeenki
• Z. bartoni diamondi

The population of each subspecies is geographically isolated. The subspecies are distinguished primarily by differences in body size.

External links

• EDGE of Existence (Zaglossus spp.) – Saving the World's most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species