Aye-aye Conservation status: Endangered
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Suborder: Strepsirrhini Family: Daubentoniidae Gray, 1863 Genus: Daubentonia E. Geoffroy, 1795 Species: D. madagascariensis
Binomial name
Daubentonia madagascariensis Gmelin, 1788

The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a 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