This species is known from one specimen collected in 1961 at 1,600 m asl, from a single mountain of Berg Rara in the Cyclops Mountains in extreme northern Papua Province, Indonesia. It has not been located in the adjacent mountain ranges of Torricelli and Bewani (there are fossil records from the Bewani range). It could be found in the Foja Range, which has not been adequately surveyed. An expedition to the Cyclops Mountains in May 2007 found evidence of the species (recent digging activity and burrows), and there was local knowledge of the species that implied its continued existence there, although no echidna was sighted (J. Baillie, in litt.). This expedition concluded that the species probably occurs also at lower elevations than previously thought; 166 to 1,600 m.