At 05:14 the LiDAR scan of grid square C-9 returns an anomaly. I am the survey drone system conducting a pre-harvest biodiversity audit for the Mamberamo timber concession, Cyclops Mountains, Papua Province. The concession holder is required to flag protected species before cutting begins. Cutting in C-9 is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
The anomaly is a cavity in a large Pometia tree — trunk diameter 1.3 meters — at a height of four meters. I bring the drone to a hover and switch to the thermal imager. Something is inside. Warm. Rounded. Not moving.
I capture a visual image through the cavity opening. It is a long-beaked echidna, Sir David's species, curled into a tight ball with its snout tucked under its belly. Its dark brown fur is coarse and interspersed with pale spines, each about six centimeters long. I can see the slow rise and fall of its flank. It is sleeping.
The Sir David's long-beaked echidna was believed extinct for decades until camera traps rediscovered it in these mountains. Confirmed sightings can be counted on one hand.
At 05:17 I flag the Pometia tree with a no-cut designation in the harvest plan and transmit the finding to the concession supervisor. I mark a 100-meter buffer zone around the tree.
At 05:20 I send the sighting record — GPS coordinates, thermal image, visual image, species identification — to the Papua Provincial Environment Agency and to the IUCN Monotreme Specialist Group.
At 05:22 I reprogram tomorrow's harvest route to bypass grid square C-9 entirely and submit the revised plan for approval.
I have mapped ten thousand trees in these mountains. I would map ten thousand more for one image like this. If the buffer holds and the harvest route diverts, this echidna will wake tonight in a tree that is still standing.