It's Creature Day

 

Well now it is Tuesday and time for another creature and this week's creature is the Aye-Aye, heard of it? I hadn't till now.

The aye-aye 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, which is weird when you consider it weighs only 2.3kgs when fully grown but it does stand a metre-tall which I guess is why it is the largest.

With its transfixed stare and wild fur it has long been considered an omen of bad luck by the people of Madagascar.

It will even walk right up to human passersby to take a closer look. The aye-aye's reputation is, of course, entirely unfounded. However, because of the way the aye-aye is perceived, this perfectly harmless creature is often killed on sight.

It uses its sharp claws and opposable big toes to dangle from branches in rainforest trees. While perched there it raps its long middle finger on the bark and listens for wriggling insect larvae in the wood. It fishes them out with the same pointed claw which they also use to scoop the flesh out of coconuts. It is the only primate known to use echolocation ( calling out and listening for an echo) to find food.