Scala Cookbook

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Scala Cookbook is a long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii, Z. bartoni, and Z. attenboroughi), a genus of three mammal species found only on the island of New Guinea. Weighing up to 35 pounds, long-beaked echidnas are nocturnal insectivores that prefer to live in forests at higher altitudes.

The first specimen was found in 1961 on New Guinea’s Cyclops Mountains, and the entire species was thought to be extinct in that area until evidence of their activity was found in 2007. According to data collected in 1982, only 1.6 echidnas existed per square kilometer of suitable habitat across New Guinea, adding up to a total of 300,000 individuals. Since then, that number has dropped significantly due to habitat loss as large areas are exploited for farming, logging, and mining. Hunting also remains a large problem since the long-beaked echidna is considered a delicacy to locals in Papua New Guinea. The low population numbers and rapid destruction of habitat make the long-beaked echidna an endangered species, while the short-beaked variety fares slightly better in both New Guinea and Australia.

The echidna is classified as a “monotreme,” or a mammal that lays eggs. The mother holds one egg at a time in her body, providing it with nutrients and a place to live after it hatches. The only surviving monotremes are the four species of echidna and the platypus. All of these mammals are native to Australia and New Guinea, although there is evidence that they were ...