Animal Spotlight: Aye-aye

What is an aye-aye?

The aye-aye is a large lemur that lives in the rainforests and jungles of Madagascar. It the largest nocturnal primate and spends most of its time foraging for food. Its diet consists mostly of insect larvae, but it will also eat plants when necessary.

Foraging for food

The really extraordinary thing about this animal is how it forages for food. These lemurs have an extremely long and boney middle finger. Throughout the night, they climb through the trees, tapping on branches with their middle finger. They do this to find hollow spots in the wood where grubs would be hiding. Similar to a beaver, an aye-aye’s teeth never stop growing. They gnaw a hole through the tree before using their middle finger to reach inside and grab the larvae. Their foraging quest can start anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours after sunset. They can travel up to 2 1/2 miles in a single night.

Territories

Since they’re primates, they spend most of their time about 70 meters up in the treetops. They sleep in spherical nests made of twigs and leaves during the daytime. A male aye-aye’s territory may take up as much as 80 acres. Their territories usually overlap and though are considered solitary animals, get along well with each other and will sometimes forage together.

Endangerment

The aye-aye is considered endangered because of deforestation. It is estimated that there are only as few as 1,000 to 10,000 left in the wild. I hope you’ve enjoyed some facts about an amazing animal.

Image of a wild aye-aye by Frank Vassen, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.