Interesting facts about the aye-aye

• The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a furry animal the size of a cat.
• The aye-aye is one of the lemurs, relatives of the monkeys.
• The name aye-aye comes from the sound it makes.
• The aye-aye is a strepsirrhine primate native to the island of Madagascar.
• This primate is not common even on this island. Besides, it comes out of hiding only at night.
• The aye-aye is the world's largest nocturnal primate.
• Its binomial name, Daubentonia madagascariensis, honours the French naturalist Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton and the island on which it is found, Madagascar.
• With its big eyes and long fingers, an aye-aye looks rather frigthtening at night. But the natives of Madagascar would not think of killing one of these small animall. They believe that a person who kills an eye-eye is sure to die within a year himself.
• 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 within.