Aye-ayes are awesome

Chlidonias

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15+ year member
and so is alliteration....

anyway, I know there's aye-aye stuff buried in the worst zoo exhibit thread but I thought I'd start this one here. I have a question which is aimed mainly at European/UK/USA members because we aren't lucky enough to have any aye-ayes down in our corner of the world.

I just saw a small piece of footage of an aye-aye feeding on a documentary (which is to say, the footage was on a documentary, the aye-aye wasn't feeding on a documentary). Obviously I was already aware of HOW they feed, using their finger to tap for grubs, but actually seeing the animal do it is just so different from reading about it. It was amazing.

So my question is, how do aye-ayes get fed in zoos? I guess all zoos do things differently, but in general terms do they just plonk in a bowl of grubs and the aye-ayes have to make do, or do they set up grub-filled logs every day. I was just thinking that they'd have to go through a massive supply of logs every year, what with the aye-aye gnawing away at them all time to get at the grubs. Also, what is the usual diet in a zoo for them, as in species of grubs they are fed, artificial diets, etc.
 
I've seen them being fed bowls of fruits, vegetables and insects(crickets, now and then mealworms, grubs), coco-and other nuts, sugarcane and the occasional bamboo log filled with insects and/or bananas.
 
A few weeks ago Channel 5 in the UK showed an programme in the series 'Nick Baker's Weird Creatures' on the aye-aye. It showed the some good feeding sequences of wild aye-aye (finger tapping and coconut scooping). The final sequence was shot in Bristol zoo and showed the animals using their long fingers to remove mealworms from cracks in bark. Mr Baker also hand fed them some fruit.

Alan
 
the only episode I've seen of that was the one on the fairy armadillo. That was cool. Next stop for me, Argentina....
 
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