Aye-aye
Daubentonia madagascariensis (E. Geoffroy, 1795)
Aye-ayes are the only primates with a monotypic family (Daubentoniidae), genus (Daubentonia), and species (madagascariensis).
Aye-ayes are exteremely endangered. While habitat loss is their primary threat, in some parts of Madagascar they are considered a bad omen and killed on sight.
Physical Description
The largest nocturnal primate, Aye-ayes weigh about 3 kg and measure around 400 mm long excluding the bushy tail, which more than doubles the body length. Hair is long, coarse, and blackish dark brown in color with white tips. Aye-ayes have large, naked, mobile ears, and large eyes with yellowish brown irises.
Aye-ayes have more extreme morphological specializations than any other living primate, most of which are adaptations for eating larvae. The third digit of each hand is extraordinarily long due to an especially elongated metacarpal. It and all other toes except one bear curved claws; the other has a flat nail.
Locomotion
Aye-ayes are quadrudedal and arboreal.
Habitat
Are-ayes are only found along the western and northern coasts of Madagascar, an island off the South-Eastern coast of Africa. They inhabit wet and dry primary and secondary forests, and spiny desert.
Diet
Aye-ayes are insectivores. They locate wood-boring larvae by tapping on branches with the third finger and listening for movement. After gnawing a hole with their rodent-like incisors, they use their enlarged third forefinger to extract the grub. Aye-ayes also feed on fruit, nectar, seeds, and fungus.
Behavior
Aye-ayes are nocturnal. They spend up to 80% of the night traveling and foraging in the upper canopy. Males may travel between 2 - 4 km (1.2 - 2.4 mi) in a single night.
The day is spent sleeping. They build nests from twigs and leaves in vine tangles, usually in the upper canopy (above 7 m (23'). Large trees may contain as many as six nests.
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See ARKive for pictures and film clips, including images of newborns and clips of finger tapping and grub extraction.
for more information:
Garbutt, N. 1999. Mammals of Madagascar. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven and London.
Rowe, N. 1996. The Pictoral Guide to the Living Primates. Pogonias Press. East Hampton, New York.
The background pattern on this page is by squidfingers.
The illustrations depicted on this page are in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with copyright terms of life of the author plus 70 years or less. The photographs or digital scans of these illustrations are also in the public domain in the United States (see Bridgeman Art Library Ltd. v. Corel Corporation).