Aye-Aye
Photograph by Dani Jeske/Animals Animals-Earth Scenes
Sharp claws on all their fingers help nocturnal aye-ayes cling to their treetop homes.
Aye-ayes can be found only on the island of Madagascar. These rare animals may not look like primates at first glance, but they are related to chimpanzees, apes, and humans.
Aye-ayes are dark brown or black and are distinguished by a bushy tail that is larger than their body. They also feature big eyes, slender fingers, and large, sensitive ears. Aye-ayes have pointed claws on all their fingers and toes except for their opposable big toes, which enable them to dangle from branches.
Aye-ayes spend their lives in rain forest trees and avoid coming down to earth. They are nocturnal, and spend the day curled up in a ball-like nest of leaves and branches. The nests appear as closed spheres with single entry holes, situated in the forks of large trees.
While perched aloft, the aye-aye taps on trees with its long middle finger and listens for wood-boring insect larvae moving under the bark. It employs the same middle finger to fish them out. The digit is also useful for scooping the flesh out of coconuts and other fruits that supplement the animal's insect diet.
Many people native to Madagascar consider the aye-aye an omen of ill luck. For this reason they often have been killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction, have made the aye-aye critically endangered. Today they are protected by law.
Fast Facts Type: Mammal
Diet: Omnivore
Average life span in captivity: 20 years
Size: Head and body, 14 to 17 in (36 to 43 cm); Tail, 22 to 24 in (56 to 61 cm)
Weight: 4 lbs (2 kg)
Protection status: Threatened
Did you know? Aye-ayes are the only primates thought to use echolocation to find prey.
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:
Aye-ayes can be found only on the island of Madagascar. These rare animals may not look like primates at first glance, but they are related to chimpanzees, apes, and humans.
Aye-ayes are dark brown or black and are distinguished by a bushy tail that is larger than their body. They also feature big eyes, slender fingers, and large, sensitive ears. Aye-ayes have pointed claws on all their fingers and toes except for their opposable big toes, which enable them to dangle from branches.
Aye-ayes spend their lives in rain forest trees and avoid coming down to earth. They are nocturnal, and spend the day curled up in a ball-like nest of leaves and branches. The nests appear as closed spheres with single entry holes, situated in the forks of large trees.
While perched aloft, the aye-aye taps on trees with its long middle finger and listens for wood-boring insect larvae moving under the bark. It employs the same middle finger to fish them out. The digit is also useful for scooping the flesh out of coconuts and other fruits that supplement the animal's insect diet.
Many people native to Madagascar consider the aye-aye an omen of ill luck. For this reason they often have been killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction, have made the aye-aye critically endangered. Today they are protected by law.
Fast Facts Type: Mammal
Diet: Omnivore
Average life span in captivity: 20 years
Size: Head and body, 14 to 17 in (36 to 43 cm); Tail, 22 to 24 in (56 to 61 cm)
Weight: 4 lbs (2 kg)
Protection status: Threatened
Did you know? Aye-ayes are the only primates thought to use echolocation to find prey.
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/aye-aye/
Aye-aye
Facts
Aye-aye is one of the strangest looking primates. This animal can be found only in the north-eastern parts of Madagascar. Aye-aye lives in the tropical rainforests and deciduous forests, usually at the altitude above 700 meters. It is characterized by scary appearance and people of Madagascar believe that aye-aye "predicts" death. People often hunt aye-aye because they are afraid of him and because they consider that aye-aye is a pest of agricultural crops. Besides killing, number of aye-aye in the wild is also decreased because of the habitat loss. Aye-aye is listed as nearly threatened species and it is currently under protection.
Interesting Aye-aye Facts:
Aye-aye is a small animal that can reach 14 to 17 inches in length and weight of up to 4 pounds. Its tail is longer than its body, reaching up to 24 inches in length.
Aye-aye is a type of lemur, although it looks like a mixture of several different animals. It has incisors like rodent, claws like sloth, face like weasel and body like monkey.
Body of aye-aye is covered with brown coat with few white hairs. It has large eyes and large, sensitive ears.
Aye-aye is nocturnal (active at night) animal, that spends most of its life high in the treetops.
Aye-aye eats insect larva, nectar, seed, fruit and fungi.
It has specifically designed middle finger which is used for extraction of food from trunks, braches and hard shells. This finger is very thin (looks like it is made of skin and bones) and it can be three times longer than other fingers.
Aye-aye taps a branch with its finger and listens is there is any sound of moving insects or larvae inside. If the movement is detected, aye-aye will make a hole with sharp teeth and use its middle digit to scoop the prey.
Aye-aye spends a day in nests in the trees. It builds several nests of twigs and leaves on its territory and it often changes its location to escape from the predators.
Besides humans, main predators of aye-aye are fossa and birds of prey.
Aye-aye is a solitary creature that gathers with other aye-ayes only for mating.
Aye-aye does not have specific time of the year when it mates. It can reproduce throughout the whole year.
When the female is ready for reproduction, she will vocalize to inform the males.
Pregnancy in females lasts 160 days and ends with one baby that spends first two months of its life in the nest. Aye-aye depends on mother's milk during the first seven months, but it will stays with its mother until the age of two years.
Aye-aye reproduces every 2-3 years and it becomes sexually mature at age of 3 - 3.5 years.
Average lifespan in captivity is 20 to 23 years. Lifespan in the wild is unknown.
http://www.softschools.com/facts/animals/ayeaye_facts/257/
Aye-ayes are the largest nocturnal primate in the world. They are also the only primate thought to use echolocation, which they use to find insect grubs hidden 2cm deep inside a tree. During mating, aye-ayes hang upside-down on a branch, and the procedure lasts for about an hour.
Scientific name: Daubentonia madagascariensis
Rank: Species
Common names: Aye aye
The Aye-aye can be found in a number of locations including: Madagascar.
Habitats The following habitats are found across the Aye-aye distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Aye-aye
Aye Aye Classification and Evolution
The Aye Aye is a species of Lemur that is found inhabiting the rainforests of Madagascar. The Aye Aye is not only the largest nocturnal primate in the world but is also one of the most unique and is in fact so strange in appearance, that it was thought to be a large species of Squirrel when it was first discovered. In the mid 1800s the Aye Aye was finally recognised as being a species of Lemur but was classified in a group of it's own as their closest Lemur relatives remain a mystery even today. However, these incredibly unique animals are severely threatened throughout much of their natural habitat and were thought to be on the brink of extinction by 1980, primarily due to them being killed instantly by local people who believe that seeing an Aye Aye is very bad luck. Although today population numbers seem to have risen, the Aye Aye is one of Madagascar's most endangered animal species.
Aye Aye Anatomy and Appearance
The Aye Aye is a primate that is most closely related to Lemurs but is one of the most unique animals on the planet due the fact that it possesses a number of very distinct adaptations. Their body and long tail are covered in coarse, shaggy black or dark brown fur with a layer of white guard hairs that helps them to blend into the surrounding forest in the dark. The Aye Aye has very large eyes on it's pointed face, a pink nose and rodent-like teeth with incisors that grow continuously to ensure that they never become blunt. Their large rounded ears are incredibly sensitive giving the Aye Aye excellent hearing when listening for grubs beneath the tree bark and are able to be rotated independently. The Aye Aye has long and bony fingers with sharp pointed claws on the ends to help when dangling from branches, but it is the middle fingers on their front feet which are their most distinctive feature. Much longer than the others, these fingers are opposable with a double-jointed tip and a hooked claw on the end and are used for both detecting grubs in dead wood and then extracting them.
Aye Aye Distribution and Habitat
Historically, the Aye Aye inhabited the coastal forests of eastern and north-western Madagascar but by 1983 they were thought to be almost extinct with only a few scattered individuals known to still be found there. Since then their population numbers have increased and although these populations aren't favourably big, they are found in an increasing number of locations and in a variety of different forest habitats. The Aye Aye prefers dense, tropical and coastal rainforest where there is plenty of cover but they are also known to inhabit secondary forest, bamboo thickets, mangroves and even coconut groves along the eastern coast of Madagascar. However, along with the persecution of the Aye Aye by local people they are severely threatened in their natural environment by habitat loss.
Aye Aye Behavior and Lifestyle
The Aye Aye is a nocturnal and arboreal animal meaning that it spends most of it's life high in the trees. Although they are known to come down to the ground on occasion, Aye Ayes sleep, eat, travel and mate in the trees and are most commonly found close to the canopy where there is plenty of cover from the dense foliage. During the day Aye Ayes sleep in spherical nests in the forks of tree branches that are constructed out of leaves, branches and vines before emerging after dark to begin their hunt for food. The Aye Aye is a solitary animal that marks it's large home range with scent with the smaller territory of a female often overlapping those of at least a couple of males. Male Aye Ayes tend to share their territories with other males and are even known to share the same nests (although not at the same time), and can seemingly tolerate each other until they hear the call of a female that is looking for a mate.
Aye Aye Reproduction and Life Cycles
It was previously thought that the Aye Aye had a very strict breeding season (in the same way as other Lemurs) when they actually seem to breed throughout the year, depending on the when the female comes into season. When a female is ready to mate she calls to male Lemurs who are known to gather around her and will fight aggressively between one another for breeding rights. After a gestation period that lasts for about five months, a single infant is born and spends it's first two months in the safety of the nest, not being weaned until it is at least 7 months old. Young Aye Ayes will remain with their mother until they are two years old and leave to establish a territory of their own. A female Aye Aye is thought to be able to start reproducing when she is between 3 and 3.5 years old where males seems to be able to do so at least 6 months earlier.
Aye Aye Diet and Prey
The Aye Aye is an omnivorous animal that feeds on both other animals and plant matter, moving about high up in the trees and under the cover of night. Males are known to cover distances of up to 4km a night in their search for food, feeding on a variety of fruits, seeds, insects and nectar. They are however specially adapted to hunt in a very unique way as they use their elongated middle finger to tap dead wood in search of the hollow tunnels created by wood-boring grubs, listening for even the slightest sound with their sensitive bat-like ears. Once the Aye Aye has detected it's prey it uses it's sharp front teeth to gnaw a hole into the wood before inserting the long middle finger, hooking the grub with it's claw and extracting it (filling the same ecological niche as a Woodpecker). The Aye Aye is also known to use this long digit to eat eggs and coconut flesh and is thought to be the only primate to use echolocation when searching for food.
Aye Aye Predators and Threats
The secretive and tree-dwelling lifestyle of the Aye Aye means that it actually has very few natural predators in it's native environment, with the agile and equally nocturnal Fossa being their most ferocious natural predator (along with Birds of Prey and Snakes that hunt the smaller and more vulnerable young). Humans are in fact the biggest threat to the Aye Aye as populations have been obliterated in much of their native forests due to superstition from local people who believe that it is a bad omen to see one. In other areas where they are not feared in this way, the Aye Aye is hunted as bushmeat. The biggest threat however to current populations is habitat loss caused both by deforestation and growing Human settlements that encroach on the Aye Aye's natural habitat.
Aye Aye Interesting Facts and Features
Although the Aye Aye is a solitary animal, males have very loose territories that can overlap those of a number of others. They build their nests high in the trees and will rarely sleep in the same one two nights in a row which means that one territory can contain numerous nests, with up to six thought to be found in just one tree. The Aye Aye is thought to be one of the creepiest creatures in the world with it's name believed to have come from the cry of alarm when a person spotted one. Despite now being found in more areas of it's once vast range, Aye Aye population numbers were once so low that they were actually thought to be extinct in the wild until 1957 when they were rediscovered.
Aye Aye Relationship with Humans
The main reason why Aye Aye population numbers have been critically low for years is that local people think that they are just too weird and many believe that seeing one is very bad luck indeed. One story says that if an Aye Aye points it's long middle finger at you that you will die, and other stresses that seeing one will lead to the death of a villager. The only way of stopping this in both cases is to kill the Aye Aye as quickly as possible which has led to the extinction of populations in certain areas. Today though, the Aye Aye is also faced with the increasing size of towns and villages that encroach on it's native habitats with some individuals forced to invade crops to get food, which often leads to them being shot. They are also severely threatened by deforestation for the logging industry and to clear land for the creation of agricultural plantations.
Aye Aye Conservation Status and Life Today
Today, the Aye Aye is listed by the IUCN as an animal that is Endangered meaning that it is severely threatened from possible extinction in the near future. Numbers have increased somewhat since the 1980s and small populations have been sighted in more areas of their natural range however, they are still greatly threatened by the Human activity going on around them. A number of captive populations can be found around the world in breeding programs to try and save the Aye Aye from complete extinction. A small population can also be found on the island of Nosy Mangabe, which is a protected reserve just off Madagascar's north-east coast.
http://a-z-animals.com/animals/aye-aye-/
Aye-aye is one of the strangest looking primates. This animal can be found only in the north-eastern parts of Madagascar. Aye-aye lives in the tropical rainforests and deciduous forests, usually at the altitude above 700 meters. It is characterized by scary appearance and people of Madagascar believe that aye-aye "predicts" death. People often hunt aye-aye because they are afraid of him and because they consider that aye-aye is a pest of agricultural crops. Besides killing, number of aye-aye in the wild is also decreased because of the habitat loss. Aye-aye is listed as nearly threatened species and it is currently under protection.
Interesting Aye-aye Facts:
Aye-aye is a small animal that can reach 14 to 17 inches in length and weight of up to 4 pounds. Its tail is longer than its body, reaching up to 24 inches in length.
Aye-aye is a type of lemur, although it looks like a mixture of several different animals. It has incisors like rodent, claws like sloth, face like weasel and body like monkey.
Body of aye-aye is covered with brown coat with few white hairs. It has large eyes and large, sensitive ears.
Aye-aye is nocturnal (active at night) animal, that spends most of its life high in the treetops.
Aye-aye eats insect larva, nectar, seed, fruit and fungi.
It has specifically designed middle finger which is used for extraction of food from trunks, braches and hard shells. This finger is very thin (looks like it is made of skin and bones) and it can be three times longer than other fingers.
Aye-aye taps a branch with its finger and listens is there is any sound of moving insects or larvae inside. If the movement is detected, aye-aye will make a hole with sharp teeth and use its middle digit to scoop the prey.
Aye-aye spends a day in nests in the trees. It builds several nests of twigs and leaves on its territory and it often changes its location to escape from the predators.
Besides humans, main predators of aye-aye are fossa and birds of prey.
Aye-aye is a solitary creature that gathers with other aye-ayes only for mating.
Aye-aye does not have specific time of the year when it mates. It can reproduce throughout the whole year.
When the female is ready for reproduction, she will vocalize to inform the males.
Pregnancy in females lasts 160 days and ends with one baby that spends first two months of its life in the nest. Aye-aye depends on mother's milk during the first seven months, but it will stays with its mother until the age of two years.
Aye-aye reproduces every 2-3 years and it becomes sexually mature at age of 3 - 3.5 years.
Average lifespan in captivity is 20 to 23 years. Lifespan in the wild is unknown.
http://www.softschools.com/facts/animals/ayeaye_facts/257/
Aye-ayes are the largest nocturnal primate in the world. They are also the only primate thought to use echolocation, which they use to find insect grubs hidden 2cm deep inside a tree. During mating, aye-ayes hang upside-down on a branch, and the procedure lasts for about an hour.
Scientific name: Daubentonia madagascariensis
Rank: Species
Common names: Aye aye
The Aye-aye can be found in a number of locations including: Madagascar.
Habitats The following habitats are found across the Aye-aye distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Aye-aye
Aye Aye Classification and Evolution
The Aye Aye is a species of Lemur that is found inhabiting the rainforests of Madagascar. The Aye Aye is not only the largest nocturnal primate in the world but is also one of the most unique and is in fact so strange in appearance, that it was thought to be a large species of Squirrel when it was first discovered. In the mid 1800s the Aye Aye was finally recognised as being a species of Lemur but was classified in a group of it's own as their closest Lemur relatives remain a mystery even today. However, these incredibly unique animals are severely threatened throughout much of their natural habitat and were thought to be on the brink of extinction by 1980, primarily due to them being killed instantly by local people who believe that seeing an Aye Aye is very bad luck. Although today population numbers seem to have risen, the Aye Aye is one of Madagascar's most endangered animal species.
Aye Aye Anatomy and Appearance
The Aye Aye is a primate that is most closely related to Lemurs but is one of the most unique animals on the planet due the fact that it possesses a number of very distinct adaptations. Their body and long tail are covered in coarse, shaggy black or dark brown fur with a layer of white guard hairs that helps them to blend into the surrounding forest in the dark. The Aye Aye has very large eyes on it's pointed face, a pink nose and rodent-like teeth with incisors that grow continuously to ensure that they never become blunt. Their large rounded ears are incredibly sensitive giving the Aye Aye excellent hearing when listening for grubs beneath the tree bark and are able to be rotated independently. The Aye Aye has long and bony fingers with sharp pointed claws on the ends to help when dangling from branches, but it is the middle fingers on their front feet which are their most distinctive feature. Much longer than the others, these fingers are opposable with a double-jointed tip and a hooked claw on the end and are used for both detecting grubs in dead wood and then extracting them.
Aye Aye Distribution and Habitat
Historically, the Aye Aye inhabited the coastal forests of eastern and north-western Madagascar but by 1983 they were thought to be almost extinct with only a few scattered individuals known to still be found there. Since then their population numbers have increased and although these populations aren't favourably big, they are found in an increasing number of locations and in a variety of different forest habitats. The Aye Aye prefers dense, tropical and coastal rainforest where there is plenty of cover but they are also known to inhabit secondary forest, bamboo thickets, mangroves and even coconut groves along the eastern coast of Madagascar. However, along with the persecution of the Aye Aye by local people they are severely threatened in their natural environment by habitat loss.
Aye Aye Behavior and Lifestyle
The Aye Aye is a nocturnal and arboreal animal meaning that it spends most of it's life high in the trees. Although they are known to come down to the ground on occasion, Aye Ayes sleep, eat, travel and mate in the trees and are most commonly found close to the canopy where there is plenty of cover from the dense foliage. During the day Aye Ayes sleep in spherical nests in the forks of tree branches that are constructed out of leaves, branches and vines before emerging after dark to begin their hunt for food. The Aye Aye is a solitary animal that marks it's large home range with scent with the smaller territory of a female often overlapping those of at least a couple of males. Male Aye Ayes tend to share their territories with other males and are even known to share the same nests (although not at the same time), and can seemingly tolerate each other until they hear the call of a female that is looking for a mate.
Aye Aye Reproduction and Life Cycles
It was previously thought that the Aye Aye had a very strict breeding season (in the same way as other Lemurs) when they actually seem to breed throughout the year, depending on the when the female comes into season. When a female is ready to mate she calls to male Lemurs who are known to gather around her and will fight aggressively between one another for breeding rights. After a gestation period that lasts for about five months, a single infant is born and spends it's first two months in the safety of the nest, not being weaned until it is at least 7 months old. Young Aye Ayes will remain with their mother until they are two years old and leave to establish a territory of their own. A female Aye Aye is thought to be able to start reproducing when she is between 3 and 3.5 years old where males seems to be able to do so at least 6 months earlier.
Aye Aye Diet and Prey
The Aye Aye is an omnivorous animal that feeds on both other animals and plant matter, moving about high up in the trees and under the cover of night. Males are known to cover distances of up to 4km a night in their search for food, feeding on a variety of fruits, seeds, insects and nectar. They are however specially adapted to hunt in a very unique way as they use their elongated middle finger to tap dead wood in search of the hollow tunnels created by wood-boring grubs, listening for even the slightest sound with their sensitive bat-like ears. Once the Aye Aye has detected it's prey it uses it's sharp front teeth to gnaw a hole into the wood before inserting the long middle finger, hooking the grub with it's claw and extracting it (filling the same ecological niche as a Woodpecker). The Aye Aye is also known to use this long digit to eat eggs and coconut flesh and is thought to be the only primate to use echolocation when searching for food.
Aye Aye Predators and Threats
The secretive and tree-dwelling lifestyle of the Aye Aye means that it actually has very few natural predators in it's native environment, with the agile and equally nocturnal Fossa being their most ferocious natural predator (along with Birds of Prey and Snakes that hunt the smaller and more vulnerable young). Humans are in fact the biggest threat to the Aye Aye as populations have been obliterated in much of their native forests due to superstition from local people who believe that it is a bad omen to see one. In other areas where they are not feared in this way, the Aye Aye is hunted as bushmeat. The biggest threat however to current populations is habitat loss caused both by deforestation and growing Human settlements that encroach on the Aye Aye's natural habitat.
Aye Aye Interesting Facts and Features
Although the Aye Aye is a solitary animal, males have very loose territories that can overlap those of a number of others. They build their nests high in the trees and will rarely sleep in the same one two nights in a row which means that one territory can contain numerous nests, with up to six thought to be found in just one tree. The Aye Aye is thought to be one of the creepiest creatures in the world with it's name believed to have come from the cry of alarm when a person spotted one. Despite now being found in more areas of it's once vast range, Aye Aye population numbers were once so low that they were actually thought to be extinct in the wild until 1957 when they were rediscovered.
Aye Aye Relationship with Humans
The main reason why Aye Aye population numbers have been critically low for years is that local people think that they are just too weird and many believe that seeing one is very bad luck indeed. One story says that if an Aye Aye points it's long middle finger at you that you will die, and other stresses that seeing one will lead to the death of a villager. The only way of stopping this in both cases is to kill the Aye Aye as quickly as possible which has led to the extinction of populations in certain areas. Today though, the Aye Aye is also faced with the increasing size of towns and villages that encroach on it's native habitats with some individuals forced to invade crops to get food, which often leads to them being shot. They are also severely threatened by deforestation for the logging industry and to clear land for the creation of agricultural plantations.
Aye Aye Conservation Status and Life Today
Today, the Aye Aye is listed by the IUCN as an animal that is Endangered meaning that it is severely threatened from possible extinction in the near future. Numbers have increased somewhat since the 1980s and small populations have been sighted in more areas of their natural range however, they are still greatly threatened by the Human activity going on around them. A number of captive populations can be found around the world in breeding programs to try and save the Aye Aye from complete extinction. A small population can also be found on the island of Nosy Mangabe, which is a protected reserve just off Madagascar's north-east coast.
http://a-z-animals.com/animals/aye-aye-/