Aye-aye   (scientific name : Daubentonia madagascariensis): Named for the length of the fingers and toes (the speciality of the middle finger). The body is like a big mouse, with a body length of 36-44 cm, a tail length of 50-60 cm, and a weight of 2 kg; the body hair is thick and long, dark brown to black; the tail is longer than the body, and the tail hair is fluffy, shaped like a broom, and the hair is 10 cm long. Black or gray; slender body; large head and blunt snout; large, membranous ears; except the thumb and big toe, which are flat nails, other fingers and toes have sharp claws; the tooth structure is like a mouse, only 20; the limbs are short and the legs longer than the arm.

Inhabits large branches or tree trunks in tropical rain forests, and builds spherical nests in tree holes or branches. Live alone or in pairs, nocturnal. Eating insects. When feeding, the middle finger is often used to tap the bark to determine whether there is a cavity, and then listen closely to the ear. Because of its shrill and cry-like sound, the local people believed that the aye-aye would bring bad luck, so they would kill it once they saw it. Coupled with the destruction of the habitat, the aye-aye became extremely rare and was once thought to be extinct. Distributed in the coastal forests of eastern Madagascar.

Chinese name: Aye-aye

Latin name: Daubentonia madagascariensis

Kingdom: Animalia

Department: Vertebrate

Subphylum: Vertebrate Subphylum

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Aye-aye

Species: Aye-aye

Name and age: Gmelin, 1788

English name: Aye-aye

The body length of the aye-aye is 30-38 cm, the tail length is 44-51 cm, and the weight is 2-3 kg; the head is large and It is relatively flat, with a fox-like face, a prominent muzzle, and a blunt snout. A pair of black ears are large and active. The ears are very large and membranous; the body is slender; the limbs are short, and the legs are longer than the arms. Except for the thumb and big toe, which are flat nails, the other fingers and toes have sharp claws; the black-brown body hair is composed of short soft down hairs and thick and long guard hairs, and the muzzle and the lower part of the body are gray-white. The face and belly are white, and the neck hair has a white tip; the tail is longer than the body, and the tail hair is fluffy and thick, shaped like a broom, and the hair is up to 10 cm long, black or gray.

The aye-aye is good at night, with staring orange-yellow eyes, a big head and a small mouth, a body like a cat, ears like a bat, teeth and claws like Squirrels, with their hands like human hands, tap trees to determine the presence of borers. It gets this name because of its peculiar fingers. Its middle and ring fingers are as thin as wire, which is not only easy to pick up the grubs in the bark, but also can use thin fingers to pick out the pulp after biting through the shell.

Another unusual feature of the aye-aye is the teeth, the aye-aye has only 20 teeth, and does not have the unique comb teeth of primitive monkeys, and is the only primate without canine teeth; the aye-aye The incisors are highly developed and grow for life, with enamel tooth surfaces and sharp cutting surfaces, and it was because of this feature that it was misclassified as rodents for many years.

Inhabits large branches or tree trunks in tropical rain forests, and builds spherical nests in tree holes or branches . Different nests will be occupied by different individuals on consecutive days. They come out alone or in pairs at night, and hide in trees to sleep during the day. The aye-aye's movement is quadrupedal, and when it descends to the ground, its limbs jump together. When foraging, it uses its unique fingers to pick the eggs in the trunk, dig out the pulp in the coconut shell, drill the egg shell to drink the egg white, and eat some bark, bamboo, etc. Because the aye-aye likes to eat insect eggs, larvae, and small beetles under the bark or on dead trees, it plays the role of a woodpecker and is a "tree doctor". There are woodpeckers on the African continent very close to Madagascar, and here they are replaced by aye-aye.

When feeding, tap the bark with the middle finger to determine whether there is a cavity, and then listen carefully. out. When eating berries, you also use your middle finger to dig a hole in the fruit and dig out the pulp from it. At night, with the sound of "Aye-aye", the mysterious aye-aye was dispatched. These mutual calls gave it the English name "Aye-aye". In most cases, they are quite quiet, purring only after being disturbed; when eating, there is no gentleness at all, an aye-aye eating fruit, chewing loudly, overflowing with juice and drooling. Hunting for bugs in tree cracks is a handy trick of the aye-aye. At first, it walks gently along the tree trunk with the tip of its nose close to the bark. When it hears or smells something, it stops to watch it, and then it digs the tree violently. skin until the hidden grub is dug out, then, with your fingers, squish the grub into the mouth.

Aye-aye likes to eat insect larvae, small beetles and bird eggs, but does not eat large insects. Also eating sugar cane, mango, and cocoa, the aye-aye can use its powerful teeth to crack open the hard shells of fruits like coconuts. Bananas, dates and eggs were also eaten under rearing conditions.

Aye-aye   live on their mother's milk until they are 7 months old, when they are not yet You need to worry about the source of the food. However, after they are 2 years old, they will leave their mothers to live on their own, so how to find suitable food has become the first problem they have to face. Under normal circumstances, after weaning, the cubs will learn from their mothers the skills of predation, for example, they will learn from their mothers how to use their slender fingers to quickly obtain food and so on.

In the natural environment, the aye-aye will eat the larvae of insects. You can see that they will first look carefully like woodpeckers, and then they will stuff the insect larvae by biting their mouths and digging with their fingers. into your own mouth. In addition to insect larvae, eggs of some birds are also one of the favorite foods of the aye-aye. Because the aye-aye also lives in trees, finding the eggs is not a problem for them.

The Madagascar rainforest also provides many other foods for the aye-aye, such as various fruits. When the aye-aye saw fresh fruit, they did not hesitate to eat. Nuts are also contracted by aye-aye monkeys. The reason why aye-aye monkeys like to eat nuts is because they have good teeth, even if they are as hard as coconut shells, they can easily bite. Because of the variety of food, the aye-aye hardly has to worry about going hungry.

Aye-aye foraging is usually an individual behavior, but sometimes, many aye-aye foraging together. All the aye-aye monkeys in the zoo are provided with sufficient and nutritious food. Under such conditions, the aye-aye can live for more than 20 years.