The aye-aye is a lemur whose elongated, skeletal middle finger helps it find and extract grubs from trees in Madagascar’s rainforests.
It locates prey by tapping on wood and listening for hollow sounds, a behaviour known as percussive foraging. After gnawing through bark, it uses the narrow finger to hook insect larvae from tunnels.
Aye-ayes also eat seeds, fruit, nectar, and fungi. Their continuously growing incisors resemble those of rodents, but the aye-aye is a highly specialized primate and belongs to the lemur family.
Its unusual appearance has led to superstition in parts of Madagascar, contributing to persecution and habitat pressure. The species is nocturnal and spends much of its life in the canopy.