Aye aye & giant jumping rat

With its huge eyes and ears and its elongated fingers, this weird and wonderful lemur is without doubt the worlds most unusual primate.
Long persecuted in its native Madagascar as an omen of death and evil, the aye-aye, like most of its lemur relatives, faces imminent extinction because of the added pressure of deforestation. This elusive species is the largest nocturnal primate and is the islands answer to the woodpecker, as it's specially adapted, flexible and it's skeletal third finger is used to find nutritious grubs and winkle them out from their woody burrows, in much the same way as a woodpeckers beak.

Video footage copyrighted to Colm Farrington / Durrell

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