A primate, mistaken for a rat, that acts like a woodpecker

June 11, 2006 9:38 AM

They are not the prettiest creature's around. More information and links here. The aye-aye is endangered mainly because Malagasy regard them as unlucky and kill them on sight. [more inside]
posted by tellurian (37 comments total)

The aye-aye is marvel of evolution. It taps on the trunk of a tree then uses its large, bat-like ears to listen for larvae burrowing under the tree bark. Once it detects larvae, it gnaws off the surface bark using its chisel-like incisors. It then probes the hole with its elongate middle finger and transfers the larvae to its mouth. [tangentially mentioned] here and here.
This fascinating animal has another use for that elongated third digit:

During aye-aye copulation the male will approach the female from behind and try to grasp her in the dorsal position. Nose-to-nose sniffing will usually precede the grasp attempt. The male and female will embrace each other while suspended from the branch by the feet. The male and female will also gently nibble on each other's faces. The male will grasp the ankles of the female with his hindfeet and the arms are clasped around the thorax. The male will bite the female on the back when in the copulation posture. The male will insert the penis using pelvic thrusts, and the female will be in a stable position looking over her shoulder towards the male. The male will then begin with rapid thrusts that eventually become slower and deeper, lasting for 5 minutes with one thrust per second, intromission and thrusting lasts for 55-65 minutes. After ejaculation, the male will dismount and move to another level of branches. Males and females will sometimes groom each other after copulating, and the female grooms her vulva with her elongated third digit.

[my emphasis] You do your best, but it's never enough, eh.
posted by tellurian at 9:40 AM on June 11, 2006

So, do they make good pets, then?
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 9:43 AM on June 11, 2006

They use the finger to winkle grubs out of bore holes.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:51 AM on June 11, 2006

"Hey, That ugly possum just gave us the finger!"

(also, they were the first critter of, and impetus for Douglas Adams' "Last Chance to See")
posted by milovoo at 9:52 AM on June 11, 2006

A little conditioner might take care of that "finger in the lightsocket" hairstyle. ;)
posted by bim at 9:53 AM on June 11, 2006

SmileyChewtrain. Goodness me! Did you look at the pictures of the newborn?
The adults look cool, but I don't think there are too may out of Madagascar.
posted by tellurian at 9:53 AM on June 11, 2006

milovoo: (also, they were the first critter of, and impetus for Douglas Adams' "Last Chance to See")
Is that true? If so, that's brilliant.
posted by tellurian at 10:02 AM on June 11, 2006

Oh, it's just hideous! Kill it!
posted by slatternus at 10:13 AM on June 11, 2006

Okay, I don't usually go in for corrections but... 'may out' should be 'many outside'.
posted by tellurian at 10:13 AM on June 11, 2006

I think they're kinda cute, in an ugly sort of way.
posted by EarBucket at 10:21 AM on June 11, 2006

Weird, I actually think they're kinda cute. Certainly nothing I would want to kill on sight. Nothing like, say, the anglerfish, which people have actually been known to eat.

For perspective, I direct you all to Ugly Overload.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:39 AM on June 11, 2006

Is that true? If so, that's brilliant.

The Observer Colour Magazine initiated moves in 1985 to send a zoologist, Mark Carwardine, and a writer, Douglas Adams, to Madagascar, to search for the aye-aye, a nearly extinct lemur.

Sure, it's in the book. Also wikipedia (above), and maybe on the full site somewhere (they have big excerpts).
It was also covered in Attenborough's Zoo Quest to Madagascar. Best footage is probably in Life of Mammals.
posted by milovoo at 10:42 AM on June 11, 2006

tellurian, ROFL!!! You do your best, but it's never enough, eh.

Guess the male aye-aye hadn't read up on Maithuna. But even if he had, apparently that kind of behavior is usual.

One of my fav authors, Gerald Durrell, wrote a book called The Aye-Aye and I.

Two soldiers talking in the Madagascar jungle.
Private: Sir, I saw an aye-aye, sir.
Sargeant: You what?
Private: Saw an aye-aye, sir.
Sargeant: Saw Ann? Who's Ann? And stop yessing me.
Private: An aye-aye.
Sargeant: What the hell is THAT in the trees? Ai ai ai!
Private: Exactly.
posted by nickyskye at 10:48 AM on June 11, 2006

I was just about to post about Durrell, but luckily hit "preview" first. I second the recommendation. It's about Durrell's efforts to film and capture a breeding population of aye-ayes for the Jersey Wildlife Trust, which he founded. His books are inevitably hilarious.
posted by posadnitsa at 10:53 AM on June 11, 2006

milovoo, ta. No real doubt intended, just ignorance on my part, thanks for the links. I knew a little bit about Durell but... Who needs AskMeta? You people kick arse.
posted by tellurian at 11:40 AM on June 11, 2006

interesting post, tellurian ... and there's nothing quite like a little Sunday afternoon aye-aye pr0n.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:46 AM on June 11, 2006

I had a comment crafted (but it went to hell)...
there's nothing quite like a little Sunday afternoon aye-aye pr0n.
Yeah Baby
posted by tellurian at 12:07 PM on June 11, 2006

Lots more info. and pictures here, courtesy of the amazing Lemur Center at Duke University, the leading institution for the study and preservation of lemurs. The Center is open to the public, and all of the lemurs are amazingly cute and fascinating.

Notable links:

A much cuter picture of a baby aye-aye.

Recordings of the vocalizations of aye-ayes--at bottom left corner.

Angelique the Aye Aye, a Primate Center Triumph--the first captive-born aye-aye.
posted by mijuta at 12:30 PM on June 11, 2006

UGLY PEOPLE OF THE WORLD unite to save the aye aye! This critter removes borers from trees - a job no American will do.
posted by Cranberry at 12:34 PM on June 11, 2006

John Cleese made a documentary about the prosimians on Madagascar that has great footage of the aye-aye, and many other cool animals doing cool things.

There's an aye-aye at the San Francisco Zoo that you can see up close (behind glass). It's creepy to watch, especially since it's in a dark room because they're nocturnal. Those huge glowing eyes! They're awesome.
posted by tracicle at 4:05 PM on June 11, 2006

Where I'm from, we regard writers of capostrophe's as unlucky, and kill them on sight.
posted by runkelfinker at 4:28 PM on June 11, 2006

First picture was from the Cellar image of the day.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 5:31 PM on June 11, 2006

tellurian writes "The male will then begin with rapid thrusts that eventually become slower and deeper, lasting for 5 minutes with one thrust per second, intromission and thrusting lasts for 55-65 minutes."

Ugly as it might be, serious props for performance and longevity.
posted by purephase at 6:27 PM on June 11, 2006

I used to have these guys jumping from tree to tree in my backyard.
posted by pwedza at 10:18 PM on June 11, 2006

pwedza, You lived in Mayotte?
posted by nickyskye at 10:32 PM on June 11, 2006

I have monkeys here. One day, one snuck in the back door and traded me some berries for 2 slices of bread (without trashing the place!). I'm fond of them, they don't trust humans to even look at them. Aren't they smart!

Aye Aye looks cute. Cute != pretty. Have to get up to Madagascar and look around. There is a company there making some awesome, politically correct chocolate.
posted by Goofyy at 6:16 AM on June 12, 2006

i've been fascinated by the aye-aye since i saw someone bring one on to a talk show about 15 years ago. Ever since then i've been saddened that they are endangered and as such, i can never get one as a pet. It would have been perfect too, he would terrorize my cats and keep my walls free from grubs.

i had a name and everything; i was going to call him Nosferatu.
posted by quin at 9:54 AM on June 12, 2006

Ewa (mahorais for "yes"), for 2 years.
posted by pwedza at 12:49 PM on June 12, 2006

Wow, pwedza, Way cool. Looks incredibly beautiful. Extraordinary to peer out into the back yard and see lemurs gallavanting.

Goofyy, I used to live in an orchard (Manali, India) and rhesus monkeys would come down in the autumn to sample the harvest, sit on the verandah in troops eating apples, apricots, cherries, pears. Occasionally there would be snow gibbons too. What kind of monkeys do you get? Neat that one of those rascals did a polite barter, leaving berries for bread. Aww. And didn't trash the place, that's a miracle.

For a summer in 1969 I lived with a family who had a squirrel monkey, Nicky, they bought from a comic book ad. It came crippled from being in the box so long, so they set it free out in the Pasadena trees, where it hung out happily and kept an open house for it so it could come home for meals/water/sleeping. So sweet, tiny, playfully bit my finger knuckles for some mischievous reason. Used to come and sit on my lap watching TV.

quin, It's understandable wanting an aye-aye as a pet and kind you did not. Grubs on the walls?
posted by nickyskye at 1:45 PM on June 12, 2006

Grubs on the walls?

None that i'm aware of, but then i don't have the aye-aye's super keen hearing. And based on how effectively my pets have already destroyed my house, it would just make sense to me that something capable of finding grubs in my walls, would.
posted by quin at 2:25 PM on June 12, 2006

ah, thanks quin.
posted by nickyskye at 3:46 PM on June 12, 2006

Now I know what Agrajag looks like.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:17 PM on June 12, 2006

Quin: I believe the talk show you may have seen was the then-director of the Duke Primate Center, Dr. Ken Glander, appear on David Letterman Show (Oct 13, 1992 - episode link on tv.com).

And your impulse is shared: one of the Primate Center's aye-ayes was named Nosferatu.
posted by steveburnett at 3:18 PM on June 13, 2006

My dad brought home a slow lorris and we had it for decades. A link above says there are only 100 or so in captivity in America. I didn't know we were so special. He was a funny little guy, captured in the wild so he was never fully comfortable with people. Boy, could he suck an egg. Chew a little hole in it and drink as from a goblet. He would lock his fingers behind his head and lean back and relax on the branch in his cage.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:07 PM on June 13, 2006

aww StickyCarpet. Amazing, a slow loris? Never heard of one. Googled it now. Where did your dad get one? Cute and somewhat creepy image of him/her sucking an egg. arg. Kind of like a mongoose, I've seen one of those suck, well almost inhale, an egg's insides, lickety split, no goblet about it. What did you call your slow loris?
posted by nickyskye at 4:30 PM on June 13, 2006

What did you call your slow loris?

Morris, of course. He was a real, real, slow guy, until we put a big locust in his cage. His hand moved so fast we couldn't even see it. But he ate it slow. crunch. crunch. crunch.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:50 PM on June 13, 2006

one of the Primate Center's aye-ayes was named Nosferatu.

You know, it's funny; it wasn't the ears, or even the eyes that made me think it would be a good name. It was that elongated finger. There's just something... Nosferatu-ian about it.

And yeah, i'm pretty positive it was that Letterman ep you referenced. Good catch.
posted by quin at 5:42 PM on June 13, 2006