Reproduction
Infant aye-ayes are weighed regularly. Click image for larger version.
Aye-aye breeding can occur at any time of year. In April of 1992 an infant was born at the Duke Lemur Center whose mother was captured while pregnant. This was the first recorded captive birth of an aye-aye. In the wild, infants are weaned as early as 7 months, but they will continue nursing in captivity as long as they remain housed with their mothers-- infants might still be nursing even at 1.5 years of age. In captivity, females give birth every 2 - 3 years. At the DLC, a captive born female bred at age 3.5 years, indicating that this is the age of sexual maturity in this species. Gestation period is around 170 days.
Of the sixteen captive births that have occurred at the DLC since 1992, four have occurred in October, two each in December, June, April, and January and one each in August, February, July and September.