Quick Bits: Aye-Aye - African animal

Ranger Rick, April, 1999 by James Martin

A night shadow leaps from tree to tree in the rainforest. It's an aye- aye--one of the rarest and weirdest animals in the world.

MADE FROM SPARE PARTS

For more than a hundred years, scientists thought the aye-aye (EYE-eye) was an odd squirrel. Its bushy tail may look a little like a squirrel's. But its owl eyes, bat ears, rat nose, pig hairs, and beaver teeth make it seem like some kind of mixed-up animal.

Scientists now know that the aye-aye is a kind of primate (PRY-mate). (Monkeys, apes, and humans are also primates.) Like other primates, aye-ayes have fingernails, front-facing eyes, and large brains.

HOME BASE

Aye-ayes live only in the forests of Madagascar, an island nation off the southeast coast of Africa.

The strange animals usually live alone and are very secretive. They move about the forest most of the night, hunting for food. During the day, they sleep in leafy tree nests.

BIG EYES

This cat-sized creature leaps from tree to tree like a squirrel or monkey. Its forward-facing eyes help it judge distances when jumping. The eyes are also huge, which helps the animal see in the dark.

A SHOW OF HANDS

An aye-aye's hands look scary to some people. The long, black, furry fingers with pointed claws are great for grasping branches. But the middle finger on each hand is the weirdest part of all (see box on the right).

FINGER FOOD

When looking for insects to eat, the aye-aye taps along branches with its freaky finger. Its large, pointy ears turn every which way like radar dishes

as the animal listens for a hollow sound. (That would mean a wood- chewing insect is likely to be inside.)

When the aye-aye taps out a hollow spot, it rips open a hole in the wood with its sharp teeth and strong jaws. Then the long finger, which can bend in any direction, snakes into the hole and plucks out the treat.

That's a lot like a woodpecker's way of finding food, except the bird hammers a hole with its beak. Then it snags the hidden insect with its long tongue.

MYTHS & MAGIC

Some people in Madagascar believe that harming an aye-aye will bring sickness or bad luck. But many think that just seeing one means someone in the village will die. And if an aye-aye points at you with that long bony finger . . . uh-oh, beware!

These are just superstitions. But they've led many people to kill aye- ayes on sight. And that's a real problem for this endangered animal.

IN DANGER

People don't kill aye-ayes only out of fear. Some kill them because the creatures sometimes damage coconut or sugar cane crops. An even bigger problem is that the animals' forest homes are disappearing. People burn the forest to clear land for farms or cut trees for the wood.

For a while, scientists feared that the aye-aye was nearly extinct. But then they began finding more and more aye-ayes scattered throughout the remaining forests. Maybe aye-ayes are better off than scientists thought!

HELP ON THE WAY

It's a good thing that many of the remaining aye-ayes live in parks and other protected areas in Madagascar. Some that were placed on a nearby island for their protection also are doing very well. Scientists have been teaching villagers about the aye-ayes and explaining that they are not evil or magical creatures.

Another way people are helping aye-ayes is by raising them in captivity. The first baby aye-aye raised this way was Blue Devil, born in 1992 at the Duke University Primate Center in North Carolina. Eight more have been raised there since then--including this little guy, checking the world outside its nest box (below).

Scientists at the Primate Center are learning more and more about the animals' behavior. They're also discovering just what it takes to raise healthy aye-ayes. Once the captive animals can keep breeding on their own, the scientists might return some to the wild. By then, they should know whether the wild aye-ayes really need all that extra help.

To learn more about the Primate Center, go to www.duke.edu/web/primate on the Internet. You may want to try out their "Kid's Zone."