Skip to main content

Aye aye

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger.
It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood using its forward slanting incisors to create a small hole in which it inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out. This foraging method is called percussive foraging, and takes up 5–41% of foraging time. The only other animal species known to find food in this way is the striped possum. From an ecological point of view the aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker, as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Jackal

  The jackal is a medium sized member of the dog family, originally found in Africa, Asia and southeast Europe. There are four main species of jackal with these jackal species being the golden jackal, the side-striped jackal, the black-backed jackal and the Ethiopian wolf jackal. The golden jackal is the most northernly species of jackal and can be found as far east as Burma in Southeast Asia. Jackals are generally found in packs of roughly between 10 and 30 jackal individuals. Jackals use their large group numbers to their advantage and work together in a similar way to a wolf pack to both occasionally hunt for food but more so that the jackals can protect one another.
Read more

Glass lizard

  The glass lizards or glass snakes are a genus, Ophisaurus (from the Greek 'snake-lizard'), of reptiles that resemble snakes, but are actually lizards. Although most species have no legs, their head shapes, movable eyelids, and external ear openings identify them as lizards. A few species have very small, stub-like legs near their rear vents. These are vestigial organs, meaning they have evolved and are no longer in use. These animals are also known as jointed snakes. They reach lengths of up to 1.2 metres (4 ft), but about two-thirds of this is the tail. Glass lizards feed on insects, spiders, other small reptiles, and young rodents. Their diets are limited by their inability to unhinge their jaws. Some glass lizards give birth to live young but most lay eggs.
Read more

Hen

  Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a chicken, other poultry, game bird, or lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman.
Read more