40 Fun Facts About Aye-Aye

The aye-aye uses its long middle finger for which very human bad habit, reaching almost to its throat?

Picking its nose is a real aye-aye habit: the thin third finger slides in through a nostril and can reach the throat. The animal then eats whatever it collects.

Madagascar has none of which birds, whose job of digging grubs out of tree trunks the aye-aye does instead?

Woodpeckers never reached Madagascar, so the aye-aye fills their niche. It gnaws into the trunk with its front teeth and pulls out larvae with one thin finger.

Ever-growing front teeth got the aye-aye wrongly classified at first among which group of mammals?

Rodents seemed the obvious fit to early naturalists, who filed the aye-aye as a kind of squirrel. No other living primate has teeth that grow throughout life.

In Malagasy folk belief, a person pointed at by an aye-aye's thin middle finger is marked for what?

Death is what the pointing finger is said to bring, which is why aye-ayes are often killed on sight. The superstition is one of the main threats to the species.

Scientists found that the aye-aye has a hidden pseudothumb, an extra digit also found on which animal's paw?

Giant panda paws carry the same kind of pseudothumb, built from a wrist bone. The aye-aye's version has three muscles to move it and even its own fingerprint.

Thanks to a gene variant shared with humans, aye-ayes prefer nectar with more of which substance?

Alcohol is easy for aye-ayes to break down thanks to an enzyme mutation otherwise seen only in humans, chimps and gorillas. In tests they chose the strongest nectar on offer.

In DreamWorks' Madagascar films, which sceptical adviser to the lemur King Julien is an aye-aye?

Maurice, voiced in the films by Cedric the Entertainer, is the aye-aye at King Julien's side. Julien seldom listens to his advice.

The aye-aye is the only primate thought to find its prey by which method?

Echolocation of a kind is how the aye-aye finds hidden grubs: it taps up to eight times a second and reads the sound that comes back. Its huge ears cup forward to catch it.

The ancestors of the aye-aye and other lemurs are thought to have rafted to Madagascar from where?

Africa is where the single ancestor of all lemurs is thought to have set out, rafting across the sea during the Paleogene. Some researchers think aye-aye ancestors made the crossing separately.

The aye-aye holds which record among the world's nocturnal primates?

Largest is the aye-aye's title among primates that are active at night. Mouse lemurs, its fellow night-shift primates on Madagascar, are the smallest primates of all.

Which cat-like carnivore, the main predator of lemurs on Madagascar, is thought to prey on the aye-aye?

Fossa diets are more than half lemur, and the animal has been compared to a small cougar. Little else is thought to trouble a nocturnal aye-aye high in the canopy.

Which British science fiction writer went looking for the aye-aye in 1985, a trip that led to Last Chance to See?

Douglas Adams made the trip with zoologist Mark Carwardine for The Observer newspaper. The pair went on to seek out other vanishing animals for a BBC radio series and book.

Aye-ayes are active after dark, so where do they spend the daylight hours curled up asleep?

In treetop nests, each a closed ball of leaves and twigs with one entrance, wedged in a fork high in the canopy. Different aye-ayes may use the same one on different days.

The grubs an aye-aye hooks out of tree trunks are mostly the larvae of which wood-boring insects?

Beetles are the main prize, especially the longhorn family, whose fat larvae tunnel through wood. An aye-aye can spend up to 80% of its night feeding and travelling through the canopy.

As in many other lemurs, which aye-ayes are dominant and get first access to food?

Females outrank males whenever aye-ayes meet, which gives a mother first claim on food. Their home ranges never overlap with each other's, though each overlaps at least one male's.

Which university runs the lemur centre in Durham, North Carolina, that houses and breeds the rare aye-aye?

Duke University's centre began in 1966 with a primate colony moved from Yale. Its founding eight aye-ayes have descendants in zoos from London to Tokyo.

Why does an excited or alarmed aye-aye raise the long white guard hairs scattered through its dark coat?

To look bigger is the likely purpose: with the hairs on end an aye-aye can seem twice its real size. Keepers also see it during play between mother and infant.

At one US lemur centre, aye-ayes tap, gnaw a small hole and finger-scoop the inside of which food?

Eggs get the full grub-hunting routine: tap, chew, then dip a flexible middle finger in for the yolk. The delicate shell is left intact except for one small hole.

Farmers in Madagascar sometimes kill aye-ayes for raiding plantations of lychees, mangoes and which palm fruit?

Coconuts are a favourite, and an aye-aye scoops out the flesh with its middle finger. Farmers treat the animal as a pest, though there is no direct evidence it does real harm to crops.

The aye-aye's thin middle finger swivels freely thanks to a type of joint humans have in which body part?

Hip joints are the ball-and-socket type, and the aye-aye's probing finger is unique among animals in having one at its base. That lets it turn in almost any direction inside a grub tunnel.

Despite a large brain for its body size, the aye-aye has tested poorly at which skill in experiments?

Using tools it has to hold proved a weak spot in tests. That is odd for an animal that carries a built-in probe, its thin middle finger, on each hand.

Aye-ayes have pointed claws on every digit except which opposable pair, used to dangle from branches?

Big toes are the exception: they are opposable, which lets an aye-aye dangle from a branch by its feet. The animals often cling upside down as they move about.

Which marsupial of New Guinea and Queensland hunts grubs like the aye-aye, with a long fourth finger?

Striped possum hunting copies the aye-aye's routine on a distant limb of the mammal family: it drums on wood, rips it open with its teeth and hooks out larvae with a long clawed finger.

Which zoo founded by the writer Gerald Durrell keeps the international studbook for the aye-aye?

Jersey Zoo imported six wild aye-ayes in 1990 and also manages the European breeding programme. Durrell opened the park in the Channel Islands in 1959.

Which British anatomist's detailed study finally settled that the puzzling aye-aye was a primate?

Richard Owen, the man who coined the word dinosaur, published the anatomical study that ended the argument. Until then naturalists could not agree whether the animal was a primate, a gnawing mammal or a marsupial.

The aye-aye's hidden pseudothumb is thought to make up for its specialised fingers by helping with what?

Gripping is the job the long, thin fingers do badly, so the pseudothumb takes up the slack. It can push with a force of almost half the animal's body weight.

One theory traces the name aye-aye to a Malagasy phrase said to avoid naming a feared animal, meaning what?

"I don't know" is the meaning of the Malagasy "heh heh" in one proposed origin, put forward in 2001. Others link the name to the local word hai-hai or to a cry of astonishment.

Why does an aye-aye curl up its long, slender fingers when it walks along a branch?

To protect them from the forces of walking and leaping, an aye-aye curls its delicate fingers out of harm's way. It may also shift its weight toward its hindquarters.

Helped by strong shoulders and a sturdy upper arm, the aye-aye can climb down a tree trunk in which way?

Head-first descent is possible thanks to a robust shoulder girdle and a strong upper arm bone. Going up, an aye-aye makes a series of vertical leaps.

In 1966, nine aye-ayes were moved for safekeeping to which island reserve off north-east Madagascar?

Nosy Mangabe, a small forested island in Antongil Bay, became a refuge when the species seemed close to vanishing. It is still one of the best places to glimpse an aye-aye after dark.

Besides grubs, fruit and nuts, aye-ayes feed on the nectar of which Madagascan plant?

Traveler's tree nectar can take up a fifth of an aye-aye's time in the wet season. Despite its looks, the plant is not a true palm.

Which Malagasy word for a taboo is applied to the aye-aye by villagers who see it as an evil omen?

Fady are taboos that can attach to people, places, actions or objects and vary from village to village. For the aye-aye it can mean being killed on sight to keep bad luck away.

The aye-aye's genus is named after which French naturalist, the teacher of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire?

Louis Daubenton was honoured by his student Geoffroy in 1795. A bat and a variety of kale also carry his name.

Ridges inside the aye-aye's huge ears focus sound much as which type of lens focuses light?

Fresnel is the comparison researchers draw, since the ridges work as an acoustic version of that stepped lens. They help an aye-aye hear larvae moving under bark.

In a Sakalava tale from Madagascar, aye-ayes creep into homes at night through which part of the house?

The thatched roof is the way in, and the tale has the aye-aye pierce a sleeper's aorta with its middle finger. Stories like this help explain why the animal is so widely feared.

Genetic studies consistently place the aye-aye where on the lemur family tree?

The oldest offshoot is the aye-aye's line, which parted from all other lemurs first. The split is put at 60 million years ago or more.

A baby aye-aye's short-lived milk teeth show its ancestors had which dental structure, found in most lemurs?

A toothcomb, a row of lower front teeth used for grooming, is standard lemur equipment. The aye-aye swapped it for a pair of ever-growing gnawing teeth.

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire nearly gave the aye-aye's genus a Greek name, Scolecophagus, meaning what?

Worm-eater was the idea, after the animal's taste for grubs. Geoffroy dropped it because he was unsure of the aye-aye's habits and thought related species might yet turn up.

Which British comedian saw a wild aye-aye while retracing the Last Chance to See journey for BBC television?

Stephen Fry joined zoologist Mark Carwardine for the series. They had no luck on the island where Carwardine saw one in 1985, then found two aye-ayes in one tree in a national park.

Baby aye-ayes stand out from adults by their floppy ears and by having eyes of which colour?

Green eyes mark out an infant, and they turn yellow-orange or sandy brown with age. Youngsters still beg for food from their mothers at a year old.