Aye Aye
Elphaba outed!
News Flash: Ardrey the aye aye’s infant, Elphaba is out of the nest! She was sighted outside and away from the nest for the first time last Saturday, 2/11 at the age of 74 days. Once infants start leaving their mom’s nest they pretty much immediately start, somewhat tentatively at first, exploring the entire room...
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Growing up Aye-aye
Elphaba, the Duke Lemur Center’s most recent Aye-aye infant is now 57 days old and weighing in at...
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A State of Wonder
One of the aye-aye births at the Duke Lemur Center set a record in the species for reproductive longevity. The dam was estimated to be 26 years old at conception. The sire was 28 years old. 2010 also brought the first mouse lemur births at the Duke Lemur Center in more than 14 years. In...
Overview
Due to its bizarre appearance and unusual feeding habits, it is considered by many to be the strangest primate in the world. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate. Unusual physical characteristics include incisors that are continually growing (unique among primates), extremely large ears, and a middle finger which is skeletal in appearance, and is...
Feeding
The aye-aye’s diet is very specialized, consisting mainly of the interior of Ramy nuts, nectar from the Traveller’s Palm tree, some fungi and insect grubs. The animals are also known to raid coconut plantations, and have been seen eating lychees and mangoes, which are also plantation crops. Most of what we know about the diet...
Fact Sheet
Order: Primates; Suborder: Prosimii Family: Daubentoniidae; Genus: Daubentonia Species: madagascariensis Related Species The aye-aye is the only living member of the family Daubentoniidae, and is considered to be the most unusual of all primates. Key Facts Adult Size : 5.5 – 6.2 pounds Social life : Solitary, nocturnal forager Habitat : Moist forest – rainforest,...
Reproduction
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...
Social Behavior
Aye-ayes are nocturnal, solitary foragers who spend up to 80% of the night feeding and traveling through the forest canopy. The majority of their time is spent in the trees although traveling on the ground is reasonably common. Males have huge home ranges, between 100 and 200 ha, while the home ranges of females are...
Habitat/Conservation
Once considered one of the most endangered mammals in the world, the aye-aye has in recent years been shown to be much more widely distributed than originally thought. This is due to the fact that recent years have seen an influx of researchers into Madagascar, including those specifically looking for this rare and elusive animal....
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