Aye-aye
Species of primate / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow[3] and a special thin middle finger that they can use to catch grubs and larvae out of tree trunks.
Aye-aye | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Strepsirrhini |
Family: | Daubentoniidae |
Genus: | Daubentonia |
Species: | D. madagascariensis |
Binomial name | |
Daubentonia madagascariensis (Gmelin, 1788) | |
D. madagascariensis distribution[1] | |
Synonyms | |
Species:
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It is the world's largest nocturnal primate.[4] It 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 into 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.[5][6] The only other living mammal species known to find food in this way are the striped possum and trioks (genus Dactylopsila) of northern Australia and New Guinea, which are marsupials.[7] 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.[8][9]
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 second species, Daubentonia robusta, appears to have become extinct at some point within the last 1000 years, and is known from subfossil finds.[10]