Aye Aye | Animal

The Aye Aye is a native animal from the African Island of Madagascar. The Aye Aye or Daubentonia madagascariensis is a species of lemur. 

The Aye Aye is a scruffy brown lemur with rather strange looks. It's certainly not the cutest lemur. Lemurs are sub-primates and not as intelligent as primates. But the Aye Aye does have a special trick to help him get food (read on to find out what it is.)

I'm writing about the Aye Aye because my son just received a plush Aye Aye for his third birthday from his Auntie. The lemur has always been one of his favorite animals, but this was his first Aye Aye.

It was a great gift! The Aye Aye has become very friendly with a (stuffed) ring-tailed lemur and they have a lemur baby. The whole Madagascan family go to bed with my son each night. 

We like to learn all about the animals in our house so we found out all about this new creature. 

I remember reading Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals at School. It turns out he likes Aye Ayes too. 

Durrell has been working to save the Aye Aye from extinction. He took a trip to Madagascar to capture wild Aye Ayes to breed at his Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. 

Aye-Aye and I is the story of his trip to Madagascar to find these rare and endangered lemurs and save them for the future. 

As a family, we love watching Stephen Fry and Mark Cawardine's Last Chance to See. Naturalist Cawardine was a friend of the late Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame) and they had traveled together to visit endangered animals. 

Cawardine invited Stephen Fry (also a friend of Adams) to repeat the trip with him. The result is a wonderful TV series where we get to meet lots of amazing animals and be charmed by the presenters. 

The Aye Aye is one of the creatures featured in Last Chance to See. There's a video clip below and the Aye Aye episode is featured on the Last Chance to See Blu-Ray Disc.