If
you shaved an aye-aye and stood him on his hind feet, he
would look very much like "Gollum," the J. R. R. Tolkien
character from Lord
of the Rings.
This strange little creature from
Madagascar has amazingly long fingers on his hands (yes, he's a primate),
and huge eyes for hunting his food at night.
There is only one species of aye-aye
now living, although a much larger one lived in the past but is now extinct.
Many scientists and citizen's groups are now working hard to save this
animal, which was once considered to be one of the rarest mammals on Earth.
Like
the cat during the European Middle Ages, the aye-aye is
thought to be an evil creature, and for this reason it is
traditionally shot on sight by the human citizens of Madagascar.
Unlike the cat, who could survive it's persecution because
of it's large numbers and wide range, the aye-aye lives
only on it's island, and cannot easily regenerate it's numbers.
It is almost impossible to see the animals now
because they are nocturnal and rare. It is even more difficult to start
a successful breeding program in zoos.
When zoologists first studied this animal they
were not sure what to call it - it has sharp, continuously growing front
teeth like a rabbit or rat, and for this reason they thought the aye-aye
might be a rodent. It has ears that belong on a bat, and a tail that belongs
on a squirrel; it's fingers don't look like anything that you would expect
to find on any animal at all. It is now know to be a lemur who lives in
moist forests on the eastern side of Madagascar, eating insect larvae,
ramy nuts, and some vegetation.
Their
middle fingers are amazingly long and thin, and have been
aptly described as "skeletal." They use this long
narrow finger for digging insect larvae from trees. They
build nests high in the trees, but often come down and walk
on all four limbs on the ground. The aye-aye will mate at
any time of the year, and will nurse her young for about
seven months..
Gerald Durrell, founder of the Wildlife Trust,
wrote an engaging book called the Aye-aye
and I, which tells about his experiences in Madagascar while studying
and capturing several of these elusive critters for a breeding program.
He describes the aye-aye this way: "a Walt Disney witch's black cat
with a touch of E.T. thrown in'.
You might also want to learn how to draw these critters...
If
you shaved an aye-aye and stood him on his hind feet, he
would look very much like "Gollum," the J. R. R. Tolkien
character from 
Like
the cat during the European Middle Ages, the aye-aye is
thought to be an evil creature, and for this reason it is
traditionally shot on sight by the human citizens of Madagascar.
Unlike the cat, who could survive it's persecution because
of it's large numbers and wide range, the aye-aye lives
only on it's island, and cannot easily regenerate it's numbers.
Their
middle fingers are amazingly long and thin, and have been
aptly described as "skeletal." They use this long
narrow finger for digging insect larvae from trees. They
build nests high in the trees, but often come down and walk
on all four limbs on the ground. The aye-aye will mate at
any time of the year, and will nurse her young for about
seven months.. 
Drawing
Lessons: