The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger.
It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood using its forward slanting incisors to create a small hole in which it inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out. This foraging method is called "percussive foraging", and takes up 5–41% of foraging time. The only other animal species known to find food in this way is the striped possum. From an ecological point of view the aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker, as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within.
The aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus Daubentonia and family Daubentoniidae. It is currently classified as Endangered by the IUCN. A 2nd species, the giant aye-aye (Daubentonia robusta) appears to have become extinct at some point within the last 1000 years, and is known from subfossil finds.
An aye-aye is the lemur that appears in the logo of the Duke Lemur Center, where Zoboomafoo was filmed.
Appearances[]
The 1st episode to show an aye-aye was "Ears Hear". After reading Jackie's message, Zoboomafoo states that birds (like the female turkey vulture that delivered the message) have ears and foxes use their ears to find food. Martin then tells him that that's what his fellow lemur: the aye-aye does too. Zoboomafoo agrees, but says that aye-aye likes bugs.
Another aye-aye appeared in "Funny Faces", "Fearfest", and "Superclaw".