Scary. This animal sort of looks like it crawled out of my nightmares. It's skinny, scraggly, long-nailed, long-eared, and googly-eyed. It resembles a rabid squirrel- certainly not cute, but certainly peculiar and intriguing.
You're not the only one that might be creeped out by this nocturnal animal. It is often killed in Madagascar because of rampant superstitions there, which has resulted in its decreased numbers in the past few decades (What do you know- another peculiar animal that's endangered). Because the aye-aye displays an unusual degree of fearlessness around humans, people are more scared of it. A native group called the Sakalava believe that the animal enters houses through the roofs at night and murders its sleeping members by using its elongated skeleton-like middle finger to cut the aortic vein. Another superstition is that the aye-aye appears right before a villager dies, and the only way to stop the death of the villager is to kill the aye-aye. Those native villagers have a valid reason to be suspicious and afraid of the aye-aye- I would probably view it as an omen, too.
Here's a short video that shows an up-close image of the creepy skeleton finger and documents the aye-aye's process for finding food. Grubs- tasty, and nutritious!
http://www.arkive.org/aye-aye/daubentonia-madagascariensis/video-08d.html
hahahah first photo looks like me after partying all night. aye aye aye aye
ReplyDeletethats ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteFirst photo is unreal looking haha, it's great. Nice pictures dude.
ReplyDeleteHA? LOL
ReplyDeleteKinda cute, i would have one as a pet
ReplyDeleteWow that's ugly.
ReplyDeleteCome check me out =) alphabetalife.blogspot.com
I remember this animal from my childhood and the explanation of the name "aye aye = there it is"
ReplyDeletePoor thing, at least efforts are being made to save the creature.
ReplyDeleteThat thing is rather creepy
ReplyDeleteLooks like Yoda.
ReplyDeleteloooks freaky! O_O
ReplyDeletepretty interesting though!
I think if i was an animal, i would be an aye-aye.
ReplyDeletelooks cool haha
ReplyDeleteinteresting
Looks like my ex mother in law hahaha
ReplyDeletelooks like a bat / rat creepy to say the least
ReplyDelete+followed
Ugly bastard indeed
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I should pity the animal or be scared of it.
ReplyDelete