Anyone want to look for eastern long-beaked echidnas on Mt Victoria in Papua New Guinea?
I’m looking at visiting Mt Victoria, PNG with No Roads Expeditions. I’m planning to go around the end of June 2025, but the dates are flexible. The main target will be eastern long-beaked echidnas. There are plenty of other mammals up there to look out for as well. The standard Mt Victoria tour focusses solely on summiting the mountain, but No Roads can also organise customised tours. The base rate for this tour is $4,900 AUD per person for a group of four. This includes two nights accommodation in Port Moresby and four nights camping on Mt Victoria, along with helicopter charters to and from the grasslands, guides, food, and equipment. It only costs an additional $90 AUD per person for every extra day on the mountain. This means it would be possible to spend quite a bit longer up there for not much extra. Here’s some more information about the Mt Victoria trekking tour: https://noroads.com.au/mt-victoria-summit-trek/
I have spoken with multiple people who have been to Mt Victoria. One was a local who went there specifically to look for echidnas and found one after around 13 hours of searching. Another was an ornithologist who was focussing on birds rather than mammals. He didn’t see an echidna, as he spent very little time surveying at night, but did see silky cuscuses, coppery ringtails, Calaby’s pademelons, common blossom bats, and singing dogs (or maybe just modern ferals?). I also talked to another group of researchers who went up there to record herpetofauna. They said Doria’s tree-kangaroos were common. They also managed to see an echidna, but it was attacked by one of the porters’ dogs and later died. Peter, the founder of No Roads Expeditions, has talked to his local guides about finding echidnas. He says they know where to find them. They will also refrain from hunting and won’t be bringing their dogs.
If anyone’s interested, you can contact me at danboyland@hotmail.com.
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