The long beaked echidna, like the short beaked echidna and the platypus, is one of nature's strangest creatures. All three are the only mammals currently known to reproduce by laying eggs, and they are classified in a separate group than most other mammals. They are classified as Monotremes, mammals whose urinary, digestive, and reproductive organs all have a common opening. This name was first applied to them by the French scientist Etienne Geoffroy Saint- Hailaire, who wanted to establish Monotremes as a new class of vertebrates completely separate from mammals.

Saint-Hailaire was not the first European to encounter the long beaked echidna. The first record of the echidna was a description published in 1792 by G. Shaw. Upon inspecting a specimen that was taken to him from an anthill in New Holland (now Australia), Shaw concluded that the echidna must be related to the anteater. A more scientific examination was conducted by Everard Home in 1802 and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Home described the echidna as a "primitive mammal species" and declared it a living fossil that had only survived thus far by luck; however, scientists today are now rejecting Home's theories.

Since scientists have commonly rejected the echidna as a subject worthy of research, it has gone virtually unprotected until 1974 when the population of the long beaked echidna in New Guinea had plummeted to 300,000. The echidna, preferring mountainous areas with little human interaction has suffered greatly from farming communities and from hunting. In New Guinea, it is popular sport to hunt these creatures and the native tribes of this country will also eat the echidna. The Australian Marsupial & Monotreme Specialist group is currently trying to protect both types of echidna (short & long beaked) from extinction. They are currently working on public education programs, programs to protect the known populations in Lorentz National Park, Arfak Mountains, Tamrau Selata, and Selatan & Utara Nature reserves, and are investigating captive breeding techniques.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the echidna is still in great danger because little is known about this creature. Scientists have learned that the echidna primarily eats earthworms, ants, and termites by using its long tongue to catch the insects. On the tongue are little spikes which the echidna uses as teeth (as the echidna does not have what we call teeth).

Scientists have also learned of this creature's strange mating ritual. During breeding season, a group of male echidnas form a single line behind a female, forming what is often called an "echidna train." The males follow the female for a few days until she is ready to mate, at which time, the female will grab onto a tree ith her legs and the males will circle that tree, occasionally stopping to dig trenches. Finally one male gets to mate with the female.

About two weeks later, the mother produces a single egg and deposits it in a temporary pouch. After 10 days, the young pierces the shell with a special "egg tooth", which is similar to how birds break out of their shells. The newborn echidna is about half an inch long, but grows very quickly. Within a couple weeks, when the prickly spikes on it's coat start growing, the young will outgrowthe temporary pouch and be moved to a nursery burrow, often located at the base of a termite mound. The young echidna doesn't become fully independent until they are a year old when they leave their mother and strike out on their own.

Very little else is known about the long beaked echidna or its relative in Australia, the short beaked echidna. Without laws to protect the echidna from hunting and more research into the habits and habitats of the echidna, we cannot hope to save these creatures from extinction.