Wild aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, in native habitat at Manambato Preserve, Daraina, Madagascar

            Image of the aye-aye nest approximately 10 meters high in the crown of a tree.

This very rare sighting of two wild, non-habituated aye-ayes was an unbelievable experience.  The aye aye is the pinnacle of peculiarity among lemurs and maybe even mammals of the world.

This nocturnal lemur has multiple anatomic adaptations for foraging for grubs and other insects within trees and logs in their native environment.  The modified percussive finger is evident in several images here and is used to tap trees to find hollow areas from which grub may be extracted.  The unusually large ears are for discerning the difference in acoustics during the percussive foraging.  Additionally, the incisors are angled forward to chew into log and branch surfaces to retrieve the insects.

The aye-aye builds a nest for daytime sleeping and then emerges just after sunset.  The two animals imaged here left the nest and then started an elaboaret approximate 45 minute grooming session before moving on.  A third aye-aye attempted to enter the tree and was chased off.  This was an experience that I will likely never have again as planning to see the aye-aye in a truly wild setting is extremely difficult.

Taken on: December 5, 2024

Tags:

aye-aye

lemur

percussive foraging

Madagascar

Manambato Preserve

Daraina Madagascar

endangered

mammal

primate « less

Sets appears in: • Lemurs of Madagascar

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