Cyclops Mountains

The Forested Range Above Jayapura Where An Egg Laying Mammal Missing From Science For Over Sixty Years Was Photographed By A Camera Trap In 2023 · Sentani, Papua

THE ATTENBOROUGH'S LONG-BEAKED ECHIDNA IS AN EGG-LAYING MAMMAL - a monotreme, a lineage that split from everything else before the dinosaurs ended - AND IT WAS KNOWN FROM A SINGLE SPECIMEN COLLECTED IN 1961 AND THEN NOTHING. For more than sixty years nobody photographed one alive and it was widely assumed to be gone. IN 2023 AN EXPEDITION'S CAMERA TRAP IN THESE MOUNTAINS CAUGHT ONE WALKING PAST, on the last image of the last card on the last day. THE CYCLOPS RANGE RISES STEEPLY STRAIGHT OUT OF THE SEA BEHIND JAYAPURA AND LAKE SENTANI, a strict nature reserve, drenched, dense and almost unexplored, and it is also THE WATER SUPPLY FOR THE CITY BELOW - which is why the encroachment and clearing on its lower slopes is a live local fight rather than an abstract conservation point. You will not see an echidna. Nobody does. The lower slopes and waterfalls are open with a local guide and a modest fee, the interior needs permits, and it rains here in every month of the year.

Cagar Alam Pegunungan Cyclops, Jayapura, Papua, Sentani, Papua, Indonesia

THE RANGE STANDS DIRECTLY ABOVE JAYAPURA AND SENTANI, which has Papua's main airport; trailheads are MINUTES FROM THE ROAD. IT IS A STRICT NATURE RESERVE - CAGAR ALAM - AND THAT IS A HIGHER PROTECTION CLASS THAN A NATIONAL PARK: ACCESS IS RESTRICTED, PERMITS ARE REQUIRED FROM THE CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, AND CASUAL WALKING INTO THE INTERIOR IS NOT PERMITTED. What is straightforward is the LOWER-SLOPE WALKS AND WATERFALLS near the villages, which are reached with a LOCAL GUIDE and a modest fee. IT RAINS HERE CONSTANTLY - this is among the wettest terrain in Indonesia and the ground reflects it. LEECHES ARE ROUTINE. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SEEK OUT OR DISTURB WILDLIFE. Papua has its own travel considerations; check current advice and go with local arrangement.

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