"pull other males away from a female during mating. Males are normally locked to females during mating in sessions that may last up to an hour. Outside of mating, males and females interact only occasionally, usually while foraging. The aye-aye is thought to be the only primate which uses echolocation to find its prey. The aye-aye lives primarily on the east coast of Madagascar. Its natural habitat is rainforest or deciduous forest, but many live in cultivated areas due to deforestation. Rainforest aye-ayes, the most common, dwell in canopy areas, and are usually sighted above 70 meters altitude. They sleep"
"and unique, highly flexible middle finger, are so perfectly adapted for their uses in extractive foraging that they could not have evolved gradually through natural selection. More recently, the aye-aye's placement has posed problems for the rafting hypothesis for the primate colonization of Madagascar. If this species does not form a monophyletic group with the rest of the lemurs, then multiple colonization events would have had to occur to explain the occurrence of lemurs on Madagascar. Until Owen published a definitive anatomical study in 1866, early naturalists were uncertain whether the aye-aye (genus ""Daubentonia"") was a primate, rodent, or marsupial."
"most widespread in distribution, resulting in hundreds of subfossil specimens, and may have been one of the last subfossil lemurs to die out. An extinct, giant relative of the living aye-aye, the giant aye-aye shared at least two of the aye-aye's bizarre traits: ever-growing central incisors and an elongated, skinny middle finger. These shared features suggest a similar lifestyle and diet, focused on percussive foraging (tapping with the skinny digit and listening for reverberation from hollow spots) of defended resources, such as hard nuts and invertebrate larvae concealed inside decaying wood. Weighing as much as , it was between two-and-half"
"back, the ends of the hair are typically tipped with white while the rest of the body will ordinarily be a yellow and/or brown color. In length, a full-grown aye-aye is typically about three feet long with a tail as long as its body. Among the aye-aye's signature traits are its fingers. The third finger, which is thinner than the others, is used for tapping, while the fourth finger, the longest, is used for pulling bugs out of trees. The middle finger is unique in that it possesses a ball-and-socket metacarpophalangeal joint. The complex geometry of ridges on the inner"
"discovered Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, the world's smallest primate, in Kirindy Forest. Carwardine is shocked at the disappearance of the island's rainforests since his earlier visit. Timber provides poor communities with fuel and building material—only the unsuitable baobab trees are spared. Slash and burn agriculture and monoculture also contribute to deforestation. Conservationists are battling to preserve the remaining fragmented islands of forest by planting green corridors and engaging local communities. In a Malagasy village, Fry and Carwardine witness a traditional healing ceremony. The aye-aye has been a victim of cultural beliefs as well as habitat loss, regarded by some natives"
"as a symbol of death. When superstitious villagers encounter the animal, they kill it to prevent a death in their community. Despite their misgivings, the presenters are charmed by a captive specimen at Antananarivo Zoo. The quest for a wild aye-aye goes on, and their perseverance is rewarded with a sighting of two animals in the same tree in Mananara Nord National Park. Fry and Carwardine travel to Indonesia and Malaysia to out a rare, endemic species. At Snake Island they encounter a venomous yellow-lipped sea krait, causing Fry to rue his decision to wear open-toed sandals. At Turtle Island,"
"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. The aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus ""Daubentonia"" and family Daubentoniidae. It is currently classified as Endangered by the IUCN; and a second species, ""Daubentonia robusta"", appears to have become extinct at some point within the last 1000 years. The genus ""Daubentonia"" was named after the French naturalist Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton by his student, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in 1795. Initially, Geoffroy considered"
"with bathroom and kitchen facilities serves as a base camp for biologists, researchers and eco-tourists. The best way to see the island is by boat from Maroansetra, which takes about 45 minutes. The island is covered in dense humid forest and was established as a reserve for the aye-aye which were introduced to the island in the 1960s. They were in danger of extinction, having been hunted, for centuries, by local people who consider them to be a symbol of death and harbinger of evil. They are categorised as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There"
"Smalleye spaghetti-eel The smalleye spaghetti-eel (""Neoconger vermiformis"") is an eel in the family Moringuidae (spaghetti/worm eels). It was described by Charles Henry Gilbert in 1890. It is a tropical, marine eel known from the eastern central and southeastern Pacific Ocean, including Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. It is known to dwell at an approximate depth of 55 m, and inhabits substrates, burrowing into mud and sand. Its diet consists primarily of shrimp, crabs, benthic gastropods, bivalves, and worms. Due to its widespread distribution, lack of known threats, and lack of observed population declines, the"
"IUCN redlist currently lists the smalleye spaghetti-eel as Least Concern. Smalleye spaghetti-eel The smalleye spaghetti-eel (""Neoconger vermiformis"") is an eel in the family Moringuidae (spaghetti/worm eels). It was described by Charles Henry Gilbert in 1890. It is a tropical, marine eel known from the eastern central and southeastern Pacific Ocean, including Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. It is known to dwell at an approximate depth of 55 m, and inhabits substrates, burrowing into mud and sand. Its diet consists primarily of shrimp, crabs, benthic gastropods, bivalves, and worms. Due to its widespread distribution, lack"
"have no effect on excavation behavior. Once a chamber is found, they chew a hole into the wood and get grubs out of that hole with their highly adapted narrow and bony middle fingers. The aye-aye begins foraging between 30 minutes before and three hours after sunset. Up to 80% of the night is spent foraging in the canopy, separated by occasional rest periods. It climbs trees by making successive vertical leaps, much like a squirrel. Horizontal movement is more difficult, but the aye-aye rarely descends to jump to another tree, and can often travel up to a night. Though"
"to come down to the ground on occasion, aye-ayes sleep, eat, travel and mate in the trees and are most commonly found close to the canopy where there is plenty of cover from the dense foliage. During the day, aye-ayes sleep in spherical nests in the forks of tree branches that are constructed out of leaves, branches and vines before emerging after dark to begin their hunt for food. Aye-aye are solitary animals that mark their large home range with scent. The smaller territories of females often overlap those of at least a couple of males. Male aye-ayes tend to"
"species feeds on small squid, krill, shrimp, and bony fishes. It is aplacental viviparous. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as Least Concern, citing its wide distribution and lack of threat from fisheries. The first known specimen of the smalleye pygmy shark was a female long, caught off Donggang, Taiwan, on September 23, 1958. It was described by Taiwanese ichthyologist Teng Huo-Tu, who gave it the specific epithet ""alii"" after a woman. The name subsequently came to be rendered as ""aliae"" in scientific literature. Some authors questioned the validity of the species, and in 1977 Jeffrey"
"Oʻahu ʻalauahio The O'ahu 'alauahio (""Paroreomyza maculata""), also known as the Oahu creeper, is a small finch-like Hawaiian honeycreeper that is endemic to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It is a small, yellow green bird with a bluish bill. It is long and is green on the back and tail. The head and underparts are yellow. The face is a brighter yellow with a dark green eyestripe. Juveniles are browner with white wingbars. It feeds on invertebrates hidden under the bark of trees, and it uses its bill to remove the bark and catch the insects using its specialized tongue."
"Pueo The pueo (""Asio flammeus sandwichensis"") is a subspecies of the short-eared owl that is endemic to Hawaii. The pueo is one of more famous of the various physical forms assumed by ""aumākua"" (ancestor spirits) in Hawaiian culture. Pueo inhabit forests and grasslands throughout the islands of Hawaiʻi, although their numbers seem to be declining, particularly in the last two decades, and especially on the island of Oʻahu, upon which they were at one time numerous. Pueo is listed by the state of Hawaiʻi as an endangered species on the island of Oʻahu. This taxon was first named by Andrew"
"to suggest aye-ayes pose any legitimate threat to crops and therefore are killed based on superstition. As many as 50 aye-ayes can be found in zoological facilities worldwide. The aye-aye is often viewed as a harbinger of evil and killed on sight. Others believe, if one points its narrowest finger at someone, they are marked for death. Some say the appearance of an aye-aye in a village predicts the death of a villager, and the only way to prevent this is to kill it. The Sakalava people go so far as to claim aye-ayes sneak into houses through the thatched"
"Nosy Mangabe Nosy Mangabe is a small island reserve located in Antongil Bay about 2 km offshore from the town of Maroantsetra in north-east Madagascar. it is accessible by small boat and is part of the larger Masoala National Park complex. It is a tropical rainforest preserve and sanctuary for a species of lemur, the aye-aye (""Daubentonia madagascariensis""). It lies close enough to Maroantsetra for a day trip, although an overnight stay is recommended for seeing the nocturnal aye-aye. The island has a rich history of trading and piracy and on the west side of the island are rock carvings"
"evolution. Using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, a single colonization has been estimated at 62 to 65 mya based on the split between the aye-aye and the rest of the lemurs. On the other hand, the sparse fossil record and some estimates based on other nuclear genes support a more recent estimate of 40 to 52 mya. Furthermore, a fossil strepsirrhine primate from Africa, ""Plesiopithecus"", may suggest that the aye-aye and the rest of the lemurs diverged in Africa, which would require at least two colonization events. Once safely established on Madagascar, with its limited mammalian population, the lemurs"
"Least weasel The least weasel (""Mustela nivalis""), common weasel, or simply weasel in the UK and much of the world, is the smallest member of the genus ""Mustela,"" family Mustelidae and order Carnivora. It is native to Eurasia, North America and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Malta, Crete, Bermuda, Madeira Island, the Azores, the Canary Islands, São Tomé, the Falkland Islands, Argentina and Chile. It is classified as least concern by the IUCN, due to its wide distribution and large population throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Least weasels from various parts of its range vary greatly"
"Ayu The or sweetfish, ""Plecoglossus altivelis"", is a species of fish. It is the only species in the genus ""Plecoglossus"" and family Plecoglossidae. It is a relative of the smelts and other fish in the order Osmeriformes. Native to East Asia, it is distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean along the coast of Hokkaidō in Japan southward to the Korean Peninsula, China, Hong Kong and northern Vietnam. It is amphidromous, moving between coastal marine waters and freshwater lakes and rivers. A few landlocked populations also exist in lakes in Japan such as Biwa. It is an introduced species in Taiwan."
"Cayenne keyhole limpet The Cayenne keyhole limpet, scientific name Diodora cayenensis, is a species of small to medium-sized sea snail or limpet, a western Atlantic marine prosobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Fissurellidae, the keyhole limpets. This species is named after Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana. The spelling using one ""n"" is original and is therefore retained. The Cayenne keyhole limpet is found from New Jersey south through the West Indies to Brazil; in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean Sea; off the Canary Islands. This shell of this species varies from 15 mm to 50 mm"
"trick them. Lesser mouse-deer The lesser mouse-deer or kanchil (""Tragulus kanchil""), also known as the lesser Malay chevrotain, is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. The lesser mouse-deer is found widely across Southeast Asia in Indochina, Burma (Kra Isthmus), Brunei, Cambodia, China (Southern Yunnan), Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatra and many other small islands), Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and many other small islands), Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is the smallest known hoofed mammal, its mature size being as little as 45 cm (18 inches) and 2 kg (4.4 lb). It is threatened by predation by feral dogs."
"and weight 423 g. The striped possum's tail is prehensile. Its fourth finger is elongated relative to the others (like the third finger of the Aye-aye, a placental mammal found in Malagasy rainforests) and is used to take beetles and caterpillars from tree bark, making it a ""mammalian woodpecker"". The striped possum also eats leaves, fruits, and small vertebrates. Its main diet consists of wood-boring insect larvae, which are extracted from rotten branches probing with its elongated fourth finger and its powerful incisor teeth which are used to rip open tree bark to expose insects. It detects the larvae by"
"from the varied tit in having a washed olive colouring on the back. Iriomote tit The Iriomote tit (""Sittiparus olivaceus"") is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is endemic to the Yaeyama Islands which lie to the south west of Japan and to the east of Taiwan. Iriomote is the name of the largest island in the group. The Iriomote tit was first described by the Japanese ornithologist Nagamichi Kuroda in 1923 and given the trinomial name ""Sittiparus varius olivaceus"". It was formerly considered as subspecies of the varied tit but after the publication of a"
"whose crops are raided. Small flying fox The small flying fox, island flying fox or variable flying fox (""Pteropus hypomelanus"") is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is found in Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. The small flying fox is quite variable in its colouring. The head is usually dark brown but can be yellowish-brown and is paler in the eastern part of the animal's range. The back is tawny-brown and the underparts some shade of buff. The ears are partially furred and"
"Yale (mythical creature) The yale or centicore (Latin: ""eale"") is a mythical beast found in European mythology and heraldry. Most descriptions make it an antelope- or goat-like four-legged creature with the tusks of a boar and large horns that it can swivel in any direction. The name might be derived from Hebrew יָעֵל (""yael""), meaning ""Ibex"". The yale was first written about by Pliny the Elder in Book VIII of his ""Natural History"": he describes the ""eale"" as a creature found in Aethiopia ""the size of a hippopotamus, with an elephant's tail, of a black or tawny colour, with the"
"lemuriforms, and has never been observed in any of the numerous adapiforms. Key to this possible close affinity with the aye-aye is the identity (canine vs. incisor) of the procumbent front teeth of both species, neither of which is definitively known. If they are different between the two species, then the similarities would be due to convergence. If they are the same tooth, then it may suggest a close phylogenetic relation and African origins for the aye-aye. If ""Plesiopithecus"" is an African relative of the aye-aye, it would suggest lemuroid primates colonized Madagascar twice. Molecular studies show that the aye-aye"
"Lesser mouse-deer The lesser mouse-deer or kanchil (""Tragulus kanchil""), also known as the lesser Malay chevrotain, is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. The lesser mouse-deer is found widely across Southeast Asia in Indochina, Burma (Kra Isthmus), Brunei, Cambodia, China (Southern Yunnan), Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatra and many other small islands), Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and many other small islands), Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is the smallest known hoofed mammal, its mature size being as little as 45 cm (18 inches) and 2 kg (4.4 lb). It is threatened by predation by feral dogs. The Malay"
"surface of aye-aye ears helps to sharply focus not only echolocation signals from the tapping of its finger, but also to passively listen for any other sound produced by the prey. These ridges can be regarded as the acoustic equivalent of a Fresnel lens, and may be seen in a large variety of unrelated animals, such as lesser galago, bat-eared fox, mouse lemur, and others. Females have two nipples located in the region of the groin. The aye-aye is a nocturnal and arboreal animal meaning that it spends most of its life high in the trees. Although they are known"
"To account for these facts, a founding lemur population of a few individuals is thought to have reached Madagascar from Africa via a single rafting event between 50 and 80 mya. Other colonization options have been examined, such as multiple colonizations from Africa and India, but none are supported by the genetic and molecular evidence. Until recently, the aye-aye has been difficult to place within Strepsirrhini. Theories had been proposed that its family, Daubentoniidae, was either a lemuriform primate (meaning its ancestors split from the lemur line more recently than lemurs and lorises split) or a sister group to all"
"Spotted blue-eye The spotted blue-eye (""Pseudomugil gertrudae"") is a species of fish in the family Pseudomugilidae. It is native to Papua New Guinea and northern Australia. It adapts readily to captivity and can be kept in a small freshwater aquarium. Max Carl Wilhelm Weber described ""Pseudomugil gertrudae"" in 1911 from specimens collected from Trangan Island in the Aru Islands, naming it in honour of Gertrude, the wife of Dr. Hugo Merton, who visited the islands in 1907-08. Common names include spotted blue-eye, delicate blue-eye, Gertrude's blue-eye, and northern blue-eye. The spotted blue-eye has an elongated body generally up to 2.5"
"Yantai stingray The Yantai stingray, ""Hemitrygon laevigata"" (often misspelled ""laevigatus""), is a little-known species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, inhabiting shallow waters in the northwestern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of China and Japan. Measuring no more than across, this species is characterized by its diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc wider than long, completely smooth skin, dorsal coloration of dark irregular spots on a yellowish gray-brown background, and ventral coloration of more spots on a white background with yellowish margins. One of the three most common stingrays sold for food in China, the slow-reproducing Yantai stingray faces possible overfishing and"
"food than it would for a larger shrew. American pygmy shrew The American pygmy shrew (""Sorex hoyi"") is a small shrew found in Northern Alaska, Canada and the northern United States, south through the Appalachian Mountains. It was first discovered in 1831 by naturalist William Cane in Georgian Bay, Parry Sound. This animal is found in northern coniferous and deciduous forests of North America. It is believed to be the second-smallest mammal in the world, but has an extremely large appetite for its size. Due to its fast metabolism, it needs to eat constantly. It digs through moist soils and"