Aye-aye
Status: Endangered
primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the ecological niche of a woodpecker. It taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its finger to pull the grubs out. The Aye-aye is the only extant species in the family Daubentoniidae and infraorder Chiromyiformes. A second species was exterminated over the last few centuries.
Classification
- ORDER PRIMATES
- Suborder Strepsirrhini: non-tarsier prosimians
- Infraorder Lemuriformes
- Infraorder Chiromyiformes
- Family Daubentoniidae: Aye-aye
- Genus Daubentonia
- Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis
- (Daubentonia robusta, extinct)
- Infraorder Loriformes
