A terrifying animal whose name must not be spoken...?

A small nocturnal lemur lives in the forests of Madagascar, in the highest part of the trees. Depending on the food available, it feeds on nectar, fruit, seeds, mushrooms or insect larvae. Although completely harmless, it is believed to have witchcraft powers.

A dark animal with the teeth of a rabbit, the hair of a pig, the tail of a fox and the ears of a bat could only have been created by an evil deity... The name aye-aye is said to come from the Malagasy heh heh, meaning "I don't know", a formula that avoided having to pronounce its name! (unless it's ahay, aiay, haihay, like the frightened cries of the villagers when they see one).

^{Aye-aye in its natural habitat. Photo ©Nomis-Simon Wikimedia Commons}

And then there's this finger... The aye-aye has a disproportionately large and particularly slender middle finger. To unearth the insect larvae it loves, it taps on tree trunks and listens carefully with its developed ears to detect larva galleries (which sound hollow). He then gnaws at the bark and catches the larvae with his long, slender finger. But it's also said to enter homes at night, using its long finger to puncture the aorta of sleeping people.

^{Photo: ©RAMA, Wikimedia commons}

Many other popular beliefs lead people to try to exterminate the animal. The Malagasy, for example, are convinced that if an elderly person sees one, he or she will soon die. If a child sees one, then a child in the village will die, and a whole host of disasters will befall the village, to the point where it will sometimes be abandoned!

To ward off bad luck, the aye-aye must be captured, beaten to death with a stick and hung upside down. It is also hoped that the aye-aye will be carried away by travelers, and the curse with it... Or the remains are shown to children to weep, as only children's cries and ritual chants can prevent the curse from coming true. The aye-aye is then eaten... If the children don't cry right away, they are sometimes hit with the same stick..

The massacres caused by these beliefs add to the natural disasters and forest destruction that threaten the animal with extinction.

The aye-aye is a little known to us because it appears in several animated films such as "Madagascar" (Maurice, King Julian's advisor, is an aye-aye) and "Rango" (Priscilla). It is also the Pokémon Tag-Tag... The attraction it represents for tourists and the world leads us to hope for an evolution in beliefs, by emphasizing the interest it represents and... its harmlessness.

Order Primates
Infra-order Lemurs
Family Daubentonidae
Scientific name: Daubentonia madagascariensis
70 to 90 cm

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