I have offered admired just how handsome some of our Bears are. As we are all aware, Razzi even has people fighting over his affections and a number of times we have had catfights on the blog over his who loves him more. Just last night, Bears Friends Charlie and Alicia were squaring up to one another over who owns Razzi’s heart.

Imagine then, if our Bears were ugly. Would anyone love Razzi if he had big bat ears, a little rats face and long skinny witches fingers? I doubt it very much but who could love such a creature if, in fact, such a creature existed?

The Aye-aye; a bringer of death?

Well, such a creature does exist and it is called an Aye-aye. It is classed as a Lima and is a native of Madagascar. It combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out. The only other animal known to find food in this way is the Striped Possum. From an ecological point of view, the Aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker, as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates.

The Aye-aye lives primarily on the east coast of Madagascar. Its natural habitat is rainforest or deciduous forest, but many live in cultivated areas due to deforesting by man. The Rainforest Aye-ayes, the most common, dwell in canopy areas at upwards of 700 metres altitude. The Aye-aye sleeps during the day in nests built in the forks of trees.

The Aye-aye is classically considered anti-social, but recent research suggests that they are friendlier than once thought. It usually sticks to foraging in its own personal home range, or territory. The home ranges of males often overlap and the males can be very social with each other. Female home ranges never overlap, though a male’s home range often overlaps that of several females. The female Aye-aye is dominant to the male. They are not monogamous and often compete with each other for mates.

The Aye-aye is an endangered species not only because its habitat is being destroyed, but also due to native superstition. Besides being a general nuisance in villages, ancient Malagasy legend said that the Aye-aye was a symbol of death. Public contempt goes beyond this. The Aye-aye is often viewed as a harbinger of evil and killed on sight. Others believe that should one point its long middle finger at you, you were condemned to death. Some say the appearance of an Aye-aye in a village predicts the death of a villager, and the only way to prevent this is to kill the Aye-aye.

Incidents of Aye-aye killings increase every year as its forest habitats are destroyed and it is forced to raid plantations and villages. Because of the superstition surrounding it, this often ends in death.

The Poor Aye-aye!