aye aye .
Aye-ayes can be found only on the island of Madagascar. These rare animals may not look like primates at first glance, but they are related to chimpanzees, apes, and humans.
Aye-ayes are dark brown or black and are distinguished by a bushy tail that is larger than their body. They also feature big eyes, slender fingers, and large, sensitive ears. Aye-ayes have pointed claws on all their fingers and toes except for their opposable big toes, which enable them to dangle from branches.
Aye-ayes spend their lives in rain forest trees and avoid coming down to earth. They are nocturnal, and spend the day curled up in a ball-like nest of leaves and branches. The nests appear as closed spheres with single entry holes, situated in the forks of large trees
While perched aloft, the aye-aye taps on trees with its long middle finger and listens for wood-boring insect larvae moving under the bark. It employs the same middle finger to fish them out. The digit is also useful for scooping the flesh out of coconuts and other fruits that supplement the animal's insect diet.
Many people native to Madagascar consider the aye-aye an omen of ill luck. For this reason they often have been killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction, have made the aye-aye critically endangered. Today they are protected by law.
What makes the aye-aye so strange?
First off, it’s got continuously growing front teeth like a rodent. It has a really thin middle finger that is mostly tendon and bone. A protective film also covers its eye when it is gnawing wood and bits are flying everywhere. These features are not found in any other lemur nor any other primate, even. Most animals have behavioral characteristics that allow them to adapt well to their environment, but very few animals have such extreme morphological changes in body form and shape.
How do those adaptations help it survive?
Its features make it exquisitely well suited to acquire food, including insect larvae. Larvae live inside chambers in tree trunks and branches. The aye-aye taps along a branch with its funny finger and listens carefully with its large ears. It echolocates where larvae might be, opens up the chamber with its teeth, then sticks a finger in and pulls one out.
I’ve seen aye-ayes eat really big, chunky larvae just like a child eating an ice cream cone. First it bites the little head off and spits out the mouth parts—those are hard to digest. The insect’s insides then drip down the aye-aye’s fingers, so the animal runs it tongue around its hand to lick the juicy parts up fast.
Are aye-ayes really that rare?
We know that the chances of people running into an aye-aye are much lower than for diurnal lemurs, which come out during the day. Aye-ayes tend to wander about alone and don’t congregate often. So you have to be at the right time and place to run into one.
Today, we can tell definitively that an aye-aye has been in an area by the particular marks they make on nuts they crack open. The good news is that aye-ayes are fairly widely distributed around Madagascar. But we still don’t know the population size in any one of those places. There’s a lot more work on the aye-aye that needs to be done.
Aye-ayes are dark brown or black and are distinguished by a bushy tail that is larger than their body. They also feature big eyes, slender fingers, and large, sensitive ears. Aye-ayes have pointed claws on all their fingers and toes except for their opposable big toes, which enable them to dangle from branches.
Aye-ayes spend their lives in rain forest trees and avoid coming down to earth. They are nocturnal, and spend the day curled up in a ball-like nest of leaves and branches. The nests appear as closed spheres with single entry holes, situated in the forks of large trees
While perched aloft, the aye-aye taps on trees with its long middle finger and listens for wood-boring insect larvae moving under the bark. It employs the same middle finger to fish them out. The digit is also useful for scooping the flesh out of coconuts and other fruits that supplement the animal's insect diet.
Many people native to Madagascar consider the aye-aye an omen of ill luck. For this reason they often have been killed on sight. Such hunting, coupled with habitat destruction, have made the aye-aye critically endangered. Today they are protected by law.
What makes the aye-aye so strange?
First off, it’s got continuously growing front teeth like a rodent. It has a really thin middle finger that is mostly tendon and bone. A protective film also covers its eye when it is gnawing wood and bits are flying everywhere. These features are not found in any other lemur nor any other primate, even. Most animals have behavioral characteristics that allow them to adapt well to their environment, but very few animals have such extreme morphological changes in body form and shape.
How do those adaptations help it survive?
Its features make it exquisitely well suited to acquire food, including insect larvae. Larvae live inside chambers in tree trunks and branches. The aye-aye taps along a branch with its funny finger and listens carefully with its large ears. It echolocates where larvae might be, opens up the chamber with its teeth, then sticks a finger in and pulls one out.
I’ve seen aye-ayes eat really big, chunky larvae just like a child eating an ice cream cone. First it bites the little head off and spits out the mouth parts—those are hard to digest. The insect’s insides then drip down the aye-aye’s fingers, so the animal runs it tongue around its hand to lick the juicy parts up fast.
Are aye-ayes really that rare?
We know that the chances of people running into an aye-aye are much lower than for diurnal lemurs, which come out during the day. Aye-ayes tend to wander about alone and don’t congregate often. So you have to be at the right time and place to run into one.
Today, we can tell definitively that an aye-aye has been in an area by the particular marks they make on nuts they crack open. The good news is that aye-ayes are fairly widely distributed around Madagascar. But we still don’t know the population size in any one of those places. There’s a lot more work on the aye-aye that needs to be done.
the maned wolf .
The maned wolf stands about three feet tall at the shoulder and weighs about 50 pounds. It looks like a long-legged fox, with a reddish-brown coat and a mane along its back. Its ears are large and long (7 inches), its throat and tip of the tail are white, and its legs are mostly dark.
RANGE:
This wolf lives in central and southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, and northern Argentina.
HABITAT:
The maned wolf inhabits open forest, savanna, and marshland.
DIET:
Maned wolves are omnivorous, eating small mammals, insects, reptiles, birds, bird eggs, fruits, and vegetation.
THREATS TO SURVIVAL:
Habitat destruction is the main threat to maned wolves. They have almost no natural enemies, but nevertheless are in great danger because they needs wide, uninterrupted spaces. In addition, people kill these wolves for their body parts, believed to have magical properties.
CONSERVATION:
The National Zoo has been working to protect maned wolves for nearly 30 years and coordinates the collaborative, inter-zoo Maned Wolf Species Survival Plan, which includes breeding maned wolves, studying them in the wild, protecting their habitat, and educating people about them.
FUN FACTS:
Maned wolves rotate their large ears to listen for prey animals in the grass. They tap the ground with a front foot to flush out the prey and pounce to catch it.
Maned wolves are monogomous. Though the male and female generally live solitary lives and come together only during the breeding season, they share defended territories.
This wolf lives in central and southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, and northern Argentina.
HABITAT:
The maned wolf inhabits open forest, savanna, and marshland.
DIET:
Maned wolves are omnivorous, eating small mammals, insects, reptiles, birds, bird eggs, fruits, and vegetation.
THREATS TO SURVIVAL:
Habitat destruction is the main threat to maned wolves. They have almost no natural enemies, but nevertheless are in great danger because they needs wide, uninterrupted spaces. In addition, people kill these wolves for their body parts, believed to have magical properties.
CONSERVATION:
The National Zoo has been working to protect maned wolves for nearly 30 years and coordinates the collaborative, inter-zoo Maned Wolf Species Survival Plan, which includes breeding maned wolves, studying them in the wild, protecting their habitat, and educating people about them.
FUN FACTS:
Maned wolves rotate their large ears to listen for prey animals in the grass. They tap the ground with a front foot to flush out the prey and pounce to catch it.
Maned wolves are monogomous. Though the male and female generally live solitary lives and come together only during the breeding season, they share defended territories.