The U.S. Supreme Court restricted abortion rights and public support for abortion increased

Study shows how the overturning of Roe v. Wade affected people's views on abortion

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

A new study examining the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24, 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade's constitutional protection of abortion rights, finds that the American public's support for abortion increased after the decision.

The findings were published today in Nature Behaviour.

"Our results show the extent to which the Supreme Court is out of step with the American public," says co-author Sean Westwood, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth and director of the Polarization Research Lab.

The study's findings were based on a large, three-wave survey before the leak on May 2, 2022 of the drafted Dobbs opinion, after the leak but before the final ruling, and after the ruling. The team also examined how perceptions on abortion rights may have been affected by television and social media.

The results showed people's perceptions on when a fetus is viable changed, shifting from above 15 weeks to below 15 weeks, on average.

Perceptions on the constitutional legality around abortion also changed, as respondents were significantly more likely to report that abortion should be legal for women who choose to have one, increasing 2.4 percentage points between the weeks before and after the Dobbs ruling.

After the leak, the perceived legitimacy of the Supreme Court decreased among Democrats by 11.3 percentage points and increased 3.2 percentage points among Republicans.

"Americans increasingly see the Supreme Court as partisan and not a neutral judicial body," says Westwood. "While public support for court decisions varies, the perceived legitimacy of the Court itself has been stable historically. Americans didn’t like their side to lose in the Court, but a loss didn’t make them question the mandate of the court."

"The fact that a single decision could have such a large effect on Court legitimacy is quite surprising, and is emblematic of the modern polarized era," says Westwood. "Today a Supreme Court decision isn't just seen as a win or a loss to a group, but it's now seen as something that alters the legitimacy of the Court itself."

This particular Court case was special not only because there was massive media coverage around the decision, but there was coverage when the case was argued, on the anticipated ruling, and on the leak. A large majority of that coverage was framed around a court that might go against public opinion in support for abortion access.

"Restrictions in abortion rights stand in strong contrast to the public will, and our study shows that the public stood their ground after the court ruling, with support for abortion rights actually increasing after the Dobbs decision," says Westwood.

The researchers chose to study the effects of the Dobbs case on public perceptions and views, as prior research has often focused on the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that expands rights, and they wanted to examine the effects of a ruling that restricts rights and is contrary to the prevailing public opinion.

Chelsey Clark and Elizabeth Levy Paluck at Princeton University, Maya Sen at Harvard University, Neil Malhotra at Stanford University, and Stephen Jessee at The University of Texas at Austin, also served as co-authors of the study.

Westwood is available for comment at: Sean.J.Westwood@dartmouth.edu.

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JOURNAL

Nature Human Behaviour

DOI

10.1038/s41562-023-01708-4 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of a US Supreme Court ruling to restrict abortion rights

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Nov-2023

 

New evidence that heightened pain sensitivity is linked to sympathy for opposing political views

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, ROTMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

 

IMAGE: 

PROFESSOR SPIKE W.S. LEE IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO'S ROTMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, WHO IS CROSS-APPOINTED TO THE UNIVERSITY’S DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY. HIS RESEARCH INTERESTS REVOLVE AROUND POLITICS, MORALITY, SOCIAL CLASS, CULTURE, LANGUAGE, UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES, JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING, TECHNOLOGY, COGNITIVE SCIENCE, AND PHILOSOPHY OF MIND.

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CREDIT: ROTMAN SCHOOL

The next time your friend displays remarkable openness to their opposite political camp’s ideas, you might try pinching them.

Okay, we don’t really recommend that.  But new evidence shows that people with increased sensitivity to pain are also more likely to endorse values more common to people of their opposite political persuasion. It doesn’t stop there. They also show stronger support for the other camp’s politicians, and, get this --  more likely to vote for Donald Trump in 2020 if they are liberal, or Joe Biden if they are conservative.

Even lead researcher Spike Lee, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, who is cross appointed to the University’s Department of Psychology, was pinching himself at the revelations.

“We were honestly not expecting to see this kind of cross-aisle effects of pain sensitivity,” said Prof. Lee, who started thinking about the research idea while enjoying the oral freezing experience in his dentist’s chair. “When we first found it, we thought it might be a fluke. That’s why we ran a replication study. We found it again. We ran extended replications and follow-up studies. We kept finding it.”

The connection is perhaps not so surprising considering that we experience pain – whether it’s the physical pain of stubbing our toe or the social pain of getting bulldozed in a political argument – in a similar part of the brain. We can also experience pain vicariously by witnessing other people’s distress or perceiving a social injustice.

Prof. Lee and his research colleague, psychology graduate student Cecilia Ma, ran seven different studies with more than 7,000 U.S. participants to test competing theories of what pain sensitivity does to our perceptions of moral and political threats – does it heighten them across the board, only affect threats to the sensibilities we personally hold dear, or make us more sensitive to somebody else’s?

To gauge pain sensitivity, they used a validated self-report instrument called the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire, as well as asked participants about their political orientation and conducted an assessment of the foundations of their moral outlook.

Liberals with higher pain sensitivity showed greater affinity for typically conservative moral values such as loyalty and authority. Pain-sensitive conservatives meanwhile showed more support for values such as care and fairness, usually associated with liberals. The pattern continued when participants were asked about their 2020 voting intentions and their support for Democrat and Republican politicians.

So, along with being quicker to yelp “ouch!” does that mean the pain-sensitive are also confused about their own political orientation? Dr. Lee cautions that “it’s not that their profile of moral sensitivities shifts from ‘only supporting our side’ to ‘only supporting the other side.’ Instead, they tend to be more supportive of both sides’ views.”

While the research doesn’t give a clear solution for how to find middle ground in a politically polarized society, it does shed light on a previously unexplored influence on our moral and political views. Far from being purely rational, most people’s views “are infused with moral feelings, with emotional reactions to what’s right and wrong,” said Prof. Lee. “The better we understand the bases of a person’s moral feelings, the better we can explain and predict their political views.”

The study appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition.

Bringing together high-impact faculty research and thought leadership on one searchable platform, the Rotman Insights Hub offers articles, podcasts, opinions, books and videos representing the latest in management thinking and providing insights into the key issues facing business and society. Visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca/insightshub.

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca

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JOURNAL

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

DOI

10.1037/pspa0000355 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Pain sensitivity predicts support for moral and political views across the aisle.

 

National analysis suggests that potentially serious complications occur in 1 in 18 procedures under the care of an anaesthetist

Risk factors associated with complications in anaesthesia include very young age; comorbidities; being male; increased frailty; the urgency and extent of surgery; and surgery taking place at night and/or at weekends

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AAGBI

New survey data from the 7th National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (NAP7) published in Anaesthesia (the journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) shows that potentially serious complications occur in one in 18 procedures under the care of an anaesthetist.

The risk factors associated with these potentially serious complications include very young age (babies); comorbidities; being male; increased frailty; the urgency and extent of surgery; and surgery taking place at night and/or at weekends.

This paper has been produced by a team of authors across UK hospitals including; Dr Andrew Kane, Consultant in Anaesthesia, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough and Fellow, Health Services Research Centre, Royal College of Anaesthetists, London, UK; Dr Jasmeet Soar, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK; and Professor Tim Cook, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Bath, UK, and Honorary Professor, School of Medicine, University of Bristol, UK.

Complications and critical incidents during anaesthesia, arising due to patient, surgical or anaesthetic factors, may cause harm themselves or progress to more severe events, including cardiac arrest or death. As part of the Royal College of Anaesthetists' 7th National Audit Project, which focuses on peri-operative cardiac arrest, the authors studied a prospective national cohort of unselected patients.

Anaesthetists recorded anonymous details of all cases undertaken over four days at their site through an online survey. Of 416 hospital sites invited to participate, 352 (85%) completed the study. Obstetric cases were analysed separately and will be the focus of a separate paper later. Of 20,996 non-obstetric cases, 1,705 potentially serious complications were reported during 1,150 (5.5%) cases. Circulatory events (such as severely low blood pressure or abnormalities of heart rate and rhythm) accounted for most of these complications [616 (36%)], followed by airway complications (e.g. low oxygen levels) [418 (25%)], metabolic [264 (15%)], breathing (e.g.  difficulty in ventilating the lungs) [259 (15%)], ‘other’ [107 (6%)] and neurological [41 (2%)] events. A single complication was reported in 851 (4%) of total cases, two complications in 166 (1%), and three or more complications in 133 (1%).

In elective surgery, all complications were ‘uncommon’ (1-10 per 1000 cases) or even less frequent. Emergency (urgent and immediate priority) surgery accounted for 3454 (16%) of the included cases but 714 (42%) of the recorded complications with severe low blood pressure (hypotension), major bleeding, severe alterations in heart rhythm (arrhythmias), septic shock, significant acidosis, and electrolyte (mineral) disturbances all being ‘common’ (10-100 per 1000 cases).

Complications were associated with very young age (less than 1 year); higher comorbidity as assessed by the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) physical status; male sex; increased frailty; urgency and extent of surgery; day of the week (higher risk at weekends); and time of day.

The estimated risk of complications by risk factors were as follows:

Lines with * are the most prominent effects - babies, high ASA (‘serious underlying medical issues’), emergency surgery (e.g. bleeding from trauma), operations at night (nearly all emergencies)

*New-born babies (age less than 28 days) (18%) 3.8 times higher risk than young adults (19-25y, 4.7%)

Older adults compared with younger adults (19-25y, 4.7%):
Adults aged 66-75 y – 6.0%, 28% higher risk

Adults aged 76-85 y – 6.1%, 30% higher risk

Adults aged over 85 y - 5.7%, 21% higher risk

*ASA1 (fit and healthy, 3.5%) v ASA 4 (patient with major medical conditions e.g. heart or lung disease, 19%), 5.5 times increased risk for ASA 4 patients

Males (6.4%) v females (4.7%), 40% higher risk for males

Frail (e.g. needing help with daily activities such as cooking, shopping and housework 8.5%) vs. non-frail (4.5%), double the risk for patients who are frail 

*Emergency (‘urgent surgery’ 8.8%, ‘immediate surgery’ 39%) vs. elective (4%): immediate surgery 10 times risk versus elective, and 4 times the risk of urgent (see notes to editor)

Minor surgery (e.g. skin lump removal, 3.4%) vs. complex major surgery (e.g. bowel resection for cancer, 9%) 2.5 times increased risk for complex major surgery

Weekday (approx. 5%) vs. weekend (Sat 6.5%, Sun 10%) thus increased risk of 30% for Saturday vs. weekday and double risk for Sunday vs weekday

*Night-time surgery (20%) versus daytime (5%) – 4 times increased risk for night-time vs. daytime

Importantly, the above comparisons are univariate (comparing only one factor) and factors interact. For instance, at weekends and nighttime only the most urgent cases are operated on, often being in elderly, frail and unwell patients. It maybe these factors in combination are the cause of increased complications at this time. Similarly almost all neonatal surgery is urgent and major in babies who are unwell which in part accounts for the higher rate for complications.

Dr Kane says: “These new data from the NAP7 Activity Survey present the first estimates for the rates of potentially serious complications and critical incidents observed during modern anaesthetic practice. The data confirm that during elective practice, individual complications are uncommon, and this is reassuring for patients, surgeons and anaesthetists. Conversely, the data also highlight the relatively higher rate of complications in emergency settings.”

Prof Cook adds “The data show the potentially serious consequences occur frequently during anaesthesia and these may arise from patient, surgery or anaesthetic causes. Almost all anaesthesia care in the UK is provided by highly trained doctors and the data show that although anaesthesia is not a risk-free undertaking, the care delivered by the anaesthesia and surgical team means very few of these events progress to patient harm and anaesthesia remains very safe.”

Dr Soar concludes: “As part of the same project we recently reported that patients have become older, have more comorbidities and more often living with obesity than a decade ago. All these factors, combined with the complications we report today, make undergoing anaesthesia and surgery intrinsically more hazardous. Our findings are likely to be of value for risk assessment and consent.”

Dr Fiona Donald, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said: “Anaesthesia remains very safe and anaesthetists along with the whole surgical team are doing a good job of managing complications when they arise. But the more we understand about which patients are at greater risk of complications and the reasons for that, the better equipped we are to make further improvements in perioperative care and this study takes us a long way along that road of understanding.”

 

Note that this paper includes the results from NAP7, which will be published in full on 17 November 2023. The Royal College of Anaesthetists National Audit Projects study rare but potentially serious complications related to anaesthesia. They are intended to examine, report on and drive improvements in practice and are delivered by the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ Centre for Research and Improvement. Each NAP focuses on a different topic important to patients and anaesthetists. NAP7 examines perioperative cardiac arrest.  

Notes to editor:

Surgery definitions:

https://www.ncepod.org.uk/classification.html

IMMEDIATE – Immediate life, limb or organ-saving intervention – resuscitation simultaneous with intervention. Normally within minutes of decision to operate.Life-saving, Other e.g. limb or organ saving

URGENT – Intervention for acute onset or clinical deterioration of potentially life-threatening conditions, for those conditions that may threaten the survival of limb or organ, for fixation of many fractures and for relief of pain or other distressing symptoms. Normally within hours of decision to operate.

ELECTIVE – Intervention planned or booked in advance of routine admission to hospital. Timing to suit patient, hospital and staff.

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

Anaesthesia

ARTICLE TITLE

The incidence of potentially serious complications during non-obstetric anaesthetic practice in the United Kingdom: an analysis from the 7th National Audit Project (NAP7) activity survey

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Nov-2023

 

Aid agencies are failing patients with breast cancer in war zones meaning more will develop advanced disease

Reports and Proceedings

ASSOCIAÇÃO ADVANCED BREAST CANCER GLOBAL ALLIANCE

Lisbon, Portugal: Patients with breast cancer in conflict zones around the world are being “massively under-served” by governments, UN aid agencies and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Professor Richard Sullivan told the Advanced Breast Cancer Seventh International Consensus Conference (ABC 7). [1]

 

Among people fleeing conflict zones, either displaced within their own country or across borders to other countries, patients with breast cancer are the “single largest group of cancer patients that present to UN agencies and international NGOs,” said Prof. Sullivan, who is director of the Institute of Cancer Policy and co-director of the Centre for Conflict and Health research at King’s College London (UK). Yet international agencies and organisations have no standard procedures or guidelines for providing appropriate treatment at the right time, and no plans or funding for rebuilding capacity once conflicts have finished but pathways and funding for accessing treatment have been destroyed.

 

“The result is that we lose what is often the one opportunity to provide primary treatment to these patients before the cancer has spread. In refugee camps, 85%-90% of women don’t look for help until their breast cancer is advanced. Women are often trapped long-term in refugee camps so new breast cancer cases continue to present. There is often minimal palliative care and many women die with huge suffering,” said Prof. Sullivan, who has worked in over 18 refugee camps over the last thirty years.

 

“Often refugees move across borders to access cancer care, often to countries that cannot cope with providing medical care for large influxes of patients and where there are language barriers and difficulties in long-term treatment and follow-up. For instance, 27% of cancer patients fleeing from Ukraine to Moldova in 2022 had breast cancer but they often experienced lengthy delays to both diagnosis and treatment. Thirty-five percent of Ukrainian patients presenting at the Krakow medical centre in Poland can only be treated with palliative care and, of these, 43% are patients with advanced breast cancer.

 

“For all these breast cancer patients, there are difficulties not only in accessing surgery, but also radiotherapy and systemic therapies, including basic chemotherapy and endocrine therapy.”

 

Prof. Sullivan is calling for organisations involved in providing medical care in conflict affected regions, ranging from Ukraine, Syria, Sudan and Somalia to Uganda, Gaza, Afghanistan and Venezuela, to develop context-specific models of care for breast cancer.

 

“People are not being treated according to their needs, or according to the region they are in. One size does not fit all in conflict zones,” said Prof. Sullivan. “There needs to be conflict-specific planning. This is simply not being done at the moment. UN agencies and NGOs have yet to adequately address this specifically vulnerable population. They don’t understand that providing appropriate healthcare in war zones is very complex and that needs vary from country to country and conflict to conflict.”

 

He is calling for:

1. Standard operating procedures for addressing breast cancer and advanced breast cancer. These should build in capability for treating patients onsite in refugee camps, for example breast cancer surgery;
2. Guidelines, stratified by region and conflict, that identify funding or sources of funding to provide the appropriate care;
3. Long-term planning and funds for rebuilding pathways for cancer diagnosis and treatment after a conflict has finished.

 

Men as well as women can develop breast cancer, but Prof. Sullivan said that war has a disproportionate impact on women and children.

 

“Among displaced populations, about two-thirds are women and children. Some 265 million women are living today in armed conflict regions. This is a significant global population and a large proportion will need cancer care at some point.”

 

In 2022, the UNHCR reported that the war in Ukraine had created the fastest and one of the largest displacements of people since the Second World War, significantly increasing the numbers of displaced people worldwide to an estimated 103 million. By mid-2022, 5.4 million refugees had fled Ukraine and a further 6.3 million were displaced within the country. [2]

 

Chair of the ABC 7 conference, Dr Fatima Cardoso, Director of the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, Lisbon, Portugal, and President of the ABC Global Alliance, said: “Women in conflict zones have already suffered enough as a result of the upheaval and dangers they face. Developing breast cancer is yet another burden, but it should not be a death sentence. If it’s diagnosed and treated early, it is curable. But too many women, and sometimes men, are presenting with advanced breast cancer as a result of the conditions they face in refugee camps or the countries to which they have fled.

 

“We call upon UN aid agencies and NGOs to put in place plans and procedures to ensure that these patients are diagnosed and treated quickly and effectively. Despite the difficulties of implementing such plans, it should not be beyond the capabilities of these organisations to do this, so as to ensure that patients with breast cancer are not failed twice: once by conflict, and once by aid agencies who, currently, are not providing the necessary medical care.”

 

(ends)

 

[1] This release relates to the following presentation made on Friday 10 November in the session “The perfect storm: war, recession, regulatory/payers hurdles”, 15.50-17.05 hrs GMT: “Caring for cancer patients amidst war”, by Richard Sullivan.

[2] “Mid-year trends 2022”, UNHCR: https://www.unhcr.org/mid-year-trends

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Caring for cancer patients amidst war

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2023

 

Gut bacteria protects against diarrhoeal disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

The severity of a diarrhoeal disease could be down to the bacteria in your gut – according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

Cryptosporidiosis is responsible for over 100,000 deaths annually – predominantly in children under five.

It also affects animals, and a new study published today shows that large animals – including primates - with less different kinds of bacteria in their gut are the more severely affected.

It reveals that introducing more diverse gut bacteria can improve outcomes – including reducing diarrhoea and potential for the disease to spread.

The team, led by Prof Kevin Tyler at UEA’s Norwich Medical School, say that diet, probiotics and faecal transplant therapy could help target the disease by improving gut bacteria in people and animals.

Prof Tyler said: “The vast majority of infections and deaths happen in low-income countries, but outbreaks also occur in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

“In the UK, the disease is currently re-emerging and cases this year are increasing dramatically, suggesting the disease is currently epidemic. There are no human vaccines and only one drug licensed for human use, which is not effective for many who are affected.

“So, understanding what that can improve outcomes is critical to tackling outbreaks.

“We wanted to know whether some of the variation in symptoms might relate to the make-up of an infected person or animal’s gut bacteria and whether that composition was in turn affected by having cryptosporidiosis.”

The team collected all studies that had looked at the composition of gut bacteria in mammals which were infected by cryptosporidium and for which the data had been made publicly available.

They compared these to answer questions about the significance of gut bacterial diversity and the effect of cryptosporidium infection.

Lead researcher Georgina Hurle, also from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “The Cryptosporidium parasite is one of several microorganisms that cause diarrhoeal disease. It affects both babies and new-born livestock and it can be contracted either from animals or from people.

“Most people contracting cryptosporidiosis will recover naturally, but some people and animals will require treatment, suffer long term consequences from the infection, and may even die.

“The severity of the disease is known to be affected by prior exposure, so adults are generally less severely infected and recover better.

“We found that more severely affected large animals such as cows, sheep and primates, have less different kinds of bacteria in their gut.

“We also found that having and even introducing more diverse gut bacteria can improve outcomes, reducing diarrhoea and potential for disease transmission.

“Gut bacteria composition can be affected by diet, by consumption of probiotics and pre-biotics and by therapies like faecal transplant therapy.

“Understanding the changes that accompany infections and outcomes provides an opportunity for such relatively affordable but novel therapies in targeting a disease for which very few interventions are currently available.

“This study is important in showing that these approaches may be effective at reducing disease severity in those affected and at-risk groups and populations.”

‘Microbiome diversity is a modifiable virulence factor for Cryptosporidiosis’ is published in the journal Virulence.

ENDS

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JOURNAL

Virulence

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Microbiome diversity is a modifiable virulence factor for Cryptosporidiosis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2023

Found at last: Bizarre, egg-laying mammal finally rediscovered after 60 years

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

 

IMAGE: 

ATTENBOROUGH'S LONG-BEAKED ECHIDNA, PHOTOGRAPHED BY A CAMERA TRAP. CREDIT: EXPEDITION CYCLOPS.

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CREDIT: EXPEDITION CYCLOP

• 
  
• 
  
• A long-beaked echidna named after Sir David Attenborough and last seen by scientists in 1961 has been photographed for the first time in an Indonesian tropical forest.
• An international team of researchers worked with local communities to deploy over 80 camera traps to film the elusive animal.
• Besides rediscovering the echidna, the team uncovered a wealth of species completely new to science, including beetles, spiders, and a remarkable tree-dwelling shrimp.
• A wide range of images and video footage from the expedition are available (see link below).

More than sixty years after it was last recorded, an expedition team has rediscovered an iconic, egg-laying mammal in one of the most unexplored regions of the world. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, named after famed broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, was captured for the first time in photos and video footage using remote trail cameras set up in the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia's Papua Province.

Alongside the echidna's rediscovery, the expedition – a partnership between the University of Oxford, Indonesian NGO Yayasan Pelayanan Papua Nenda (YAPPENDA), Cenderawasih University (UNCEN), Papua BBKSDA, and the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN), Re:Wild – made many other remarkable finds. These included Mayr's honeyeater, a bird lost to science since 2008; an entirely new genus of tree-dwelling shrimp; countless new species of insects; and a previously unknown cave system. This was despite the difficulties posed by extremely inhospitable terrain, including venomous animals, blood-sucking leeches, malaria, earthquakes, and exhausting heat.

One of the world's most unusual mammals finally caught on film

Recorded by science only once in 1961, Attenborough's long-beaked echidna is a monotreme: an evolutionarily distinct group of egg-laying mammals that includes the platypus. This echidna species is so special because it is one of only five remaining species of monotremes, the sole guardians of this remarkable branch of the tree of life. Echidnas are notoriously difficult to find since they are nocturnal, live in burrows, and tend to be very shy. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna has never been recorded anywhere outside the Cyclops Mountains, and is currently classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

To give themselves the best chance of finding one, the team deployed over 80 trail cameras, making multiple ascents of the mountains, and climbing more than 11,000 meters (more than the height of Everest) in the process. For almost the entire four weeks that the team spent in the forest, the cameras recorded no sign of the echidna. On the last day, with the last images on the final memory card, the team obtained their shots of the elusive mammal – the first ever photographs of Attenborough's echidna. The identification of the species was later confirmed by Professor Kristofer Helgen, mammalogist and chief scientist and director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI).

Dr James Kempton, a biologist from the University of Oxford who conceived of and led the expedition, said: ‘Attenborough's long-beaked echidna has the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater, and the feet of a mole. Because of its hybrid appearance, it shares its name with a creature of Greek mythology that is half human, half serpent. The reason it appears so unlike other mammals is because it is a member of the monotremes – an egg-laying group that separated from the rest of the mammal tree-of-life about 200 million years ago.’

‘The discovery is the result of a lot of hard work and over three and a half years of planning,’ he added. ‘A key reason why we succeeded is because, with the help of YAPPENDA, we have spent years building a relationship with the community of Yongsu Sapari, a village on the north coast of the Cyclops Mountains. The trust between us was the bedrock of our success because they shared with us the knowledge to navigate these treacherous mountains, and even allowed us to research on lands that have never before felt the tread of human feet.’

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, photographed by a camera trap. Credit: Expedition Cyclops

Attenborough's long-beaked ech [VIDEO] | 

Cenderawasih University (UNCEN) student and team member Gison Morib setting up one of the eighty camera traps which were placed in the Cyclops Mountains in order to capture images of Attenborough's long-beaked echidna for the first time. Credit: Expedition Cyclops.

Expedition leader Dr James Kempton (University of Oxford) collecting specimens after ascending the slopes of the Cyclops Mountains. Credit: Expedition Cyclops.

A temporary expedition campsite on the northern slopes of the Cyclops Mountains. Members of the Yongsu Sapari community helped prepare paths and campsites for the expedition to conduct their research. Credit: Expedition Cyclops.

CREDIT

Expedition Cyclops.

A treasure trove of discoveries

Alongside searching for the echidna, the expedition carried out the first comprehensive assessment of invertebrate, reptile, amphibian, and mammal life in the Cyclops Mountains. With the support of local guides in the expedition team, the scientists were able to create makeshift labs in the heart of the jungle with benches and desks made from forest branches and vines.

By combining scientific techniques with the Papuan team members’ experience and knowledge of the forest, the team made a wealth of new discoveries. These included several dozens of insect species completely new to science and the rediscovery of Mayr's honeyeater (Ptiloprora mayri), a bird lost to science since 2008 and named after famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr.     

An extraordinary finding was an entirely new genus of ground and tree-dwelling shrimp. ‘We were quite shocked to discover this shrimp in the heart of the forest, because it is a remarkable departure from the typical seaside habitat for these animals,’ said Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou (a Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History), lead entomologist for the expedition. ‘We believe that the high level of rainfall in the Cyclops Mountains means the humidity is great enough for these creatures to live entirely on land.’

The team also revealed a treasure trove of underground species, including blind spiders, blind harvestman, and a whip scorpion, all new to science, in a previously unexplored cave system. This astonishing discovery was made on one of the sacred peaks above Yongsu Sapari where the team had been given special permission to do research. People rarely tread here, and the striking cave system was chanced upon when one team member fell through a moss-covered entrance.

A new species of terrestial shrimp, found in the soil and in the trees of the Cyclops Mountains. This shrimp belongs to a lineage that is normally found on the seashore, and it was an enormous surpise to the expedition team when it was discovered living hundreds of meters high up on th slopes of the mountains. Credit: Expedition Cyclops. 

CREDIT

Expedition Cyclops.

'A beautiful but dangerous land'

Extremely challenging and, at times, life-threatening conditions were at the background of these discoveries. During one of the trips to the cave system, a sudden earthquake forced the team to evacuate. Dr Davranoglou broke his arm in two places, one member contracted malaria, and another had a leech attached to his eye for a day and a half before it was finally removed at a hospital. Throughout the expedition, members were beset by biting mosquitoes and ticks, and faced constant danger from venomous snakes and spiders. Making any progress through the jungle was a slow and exhausting process, with the team sometimes having to cut paths where no humans had ever been before.

‘Though some might describe the Cyclops as a “Green Hell”, I think the landscape is magical, at once enchanting and dangerous, like something out of a Tolkien book’ said Dr Kempton. ‘In this environment, the camaraderie between the expedition members was fantastic, with everyone helping to keep up morale. In the evening, we exchanged stories around the fire, all the while surrounded by the hoots and peeps of frogs.’

An enduring legacy

Rediscovering the echidna is only the beginning of the expedition's mission. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna is the flagship animal of the Cyclops Mountains and a symbol of its extraordinary biodiversity. The team hope that its rediscovery will help bring attention to the conservation needs of the Cyclops, and Indonesian New Guinea more generally, and they are committed to supporting long-term monitoring of the echidna. Key to this work is NGO YAPPENDA, whose mission is to protect the natural environment of Indonesian New Guinea through empowerment of Indigenous Papuans. As part of the expedition team, members of YAPPENDA helped train six students from UNCEN in biodiversity surveys and camera trapping during the expedition.

Dr Davranoglou said: ‘Tropical rainforests are among the most important and most threatened terrestrial ecosystems. It is our duty to support our colleagues on the frontline through exchanging knowledge, skills, and equipment.’

With the team having only sorted a fraction of the material collected on the expedition, they expect that the coming months will yield even more new species. The intention is to name many of these after the Papuan members of the expedition.

Besides animal specimens, the team also collected over 75 kg of rock samples for geological analysis, which was led by the expedition's chief geologist, Max Webb, from Royal Holloway University, London. These could help answer many questions about how and when the Cyclops Mountains originally formed. The mountains are believed to have formed when an island arc in the Pacific Ocean collided with the New Guinea mainland about 10 million years ago. Combined with the biological findings, this geological work will help the team understand how the extraordinary biodiversity of the Cyclops came to be.

Notes for editors:

For media enquiries and interview requests, contact James Kempton: james.kempton@biology.ox.ac.uk +44 7954683094

A press pack of images and video footage (with captions) is available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VV7FRWwf-B1kMQ2ClEjU6rR-y3bRgzr2 Images/video can be used in articles if credited.

More information about the expedition can be found at https://www.expeditioncyclops.co.uk/

About Attenborough's long-beaked echidna:

• Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus attenboroughi, is not known to live outside the Cyclops Mountains and biologists still have many unanswered questions about its habitat and ecology.
• Attenborough's long-beaked echidna is an EDGE species: a threatened species that has few close relatives on the evolutionary tree of life. They have evolved independently of other mammals for about 200 million years.
• The echidna has cultural significance for the people of Yongsu Sapari, who have lived on the northern slopes of the Cyclops Mountains for eighteen generations. When there is a conflict within the community, rather than fighting, there is a tradition that one party goes up into the Cyclops to search for an echidna while the other party goes to the ocean to find a marlin. Both creatures were so difficult to find that it would often take decades or a whole generation to locate them, but, once found, the animals symbolized the end of the conflict and a return to harmonious relationships in the village.
• The echidna has only been scientifically recorded once, when it was discovered by Pieter van Royen – a Dutch botanist – in 1961. Since then it has only been known from reports of sightings by the Yongsu Sapari community, and indirect signs during pre-expedition work in 2022. These signs, also observed during the expedition, included 'nose pokes,' holes in the ground left by echidnas after using their long, slightly curved snouts to probe for underground invertebrates.  

About the expedition:

• The expedition was first proposed in 2019 by James Kempton.
• Academics who collaborated closely on the expedition include Dr James Kempton (University of Oxford), Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou (Oxford University Museum of Natural History), Madeleine Foote (University of Oxford), Dr Andrew Tilker (Re:wild, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research), Dr Attila Balázs (Mendel University) and Dr Max Webb (Royal Holloway, University of London).
• Cenderawasih University (UNCEN) team members and partners include Dr Suriani Surbakti, Gison Morib and Heron Yando.
• Team members and collaborators from Indonesian NGO Yayasan Pelayanan Papua Nenda (YAPPENDA) include co-founders Iain and Malcolm Kobak, and Yali Kobak, Sampari Kobak, Ezra Daniel, Ruben Penggu, Melias Heluka, Yuanis Yalak and Sili Yalak.
• The team obtained permits from Papua BBKSDA and BRIN. They were also given permission from the community of Yongsu Sapari to conduct research and collect specimens on their land during the expedition.
• This rediscovery was made possible in part by the generous support of Merton College Oxford, the Royal Geographical Society, the Scientific Exploration Society, Re:wild, Royal Holloway University, the University of Oxford, Reconyx, and private donations from Derek Williams, Chris Peri, and other generous individuals.

About the Cyclops Mountains:

• The Cyclops Mountains are one of the most inhospitable regions in the world, being rugged, steep, and dangerous, and ranging from sea level to 1,970 metres. They are dominated by two main peaks – Gunung Rara and Gunung Dafonsoro. When sailing ten leagues from the range's northern coastline in 1768, Baron Louis de Bougainville noted 'les deux cyclopes', from which the mountains bear their name.
• The Cyclops Mountains are a Key Biodiversity Area, meaning that they are critical to the persistence of biodiversity and to the overall health of the planet.
• The community of Yongsu Sapari have lived in the region for eighteen generations and hold the land as sacred. They believe it is stewarded by a female spirit who can take the form of a tree-kangaroo.

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