SAVING THE AYE-AYE


Group 27 | Hilmar Derksen – Yustin Kaptein – Anne Grundlehner – Leandra Meerkerk

Madagascar is home to many unique species, one of which is the aye-aye. They are small, omnivorous lemurs that mainly feed on wood-boring insects and seeds. Their very long and thin middle finger is a perfect adaptation to scoop out insects from underneath bark and they actually use it as a sort of echolocation! But this odd and mysterious lemur might become extinct before it has even been properly studied. Therefore four young, motivated students dedicated the past few weeks to writing a conservation action plan for the Aye-Aye.

  • IUCN status: endangered
  • Population trend: decreasing

We have put tremendous effort into making a scientific, educational but most importantly – fun to watch – video on the results from our population distribution modelling. Yes, it might be a little longer than expected, but trust us. It’s worth the watch! Why? Because none other than our greatest wildlife champion and hero of the natural world – David Attenborough himself has come to aid us in our research!


Aside from the video above, we also wrote an abstract on our conservation action plan if one prefers reading: