Details
Daubentonia madagascariensis
The aye-aye is a nocturnal Madagascan lemur that probes wood with an elongated middle finger. Huge ears and chisel-like incisors make it one of the most unusual primate foragers.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It lives in Madagascar's forests, from humid forest to secondary growth. Tree holes and dense branches provide daytime shelters.
Length 30-37 cm; weight 2-2.7 kg. Coarse dark fur, large ears, ever-growing incisors, and an extremely thin middle finger are distinctive. The bushy tail looks longer than the body.
Nocturnal and solitary, it taps wood and listens for hollow spaces containing larvae. It then gnaws openings and extracts prey with the long finger.
An omnivore, it eats insect larvae, fruit, seeds, and nectar. Teeth open hard shells or wood, and the specialized finger hooks out the contents.
Females build rounded nests in trees and bear a single infant. Young depend on the mother for a long period while learning the specialized feeding method.
It is listed as Endangered. Forest loss and local persecution based on superstition are major conservation problems.
