Well, after six weeks of being the zoo-keepers apprentice
and learning as much as possible about the running of a zoo, I have moved
onwards and upwards to the role of full-time researcher… well, not quite.
Although it would be fantastic to be observing animals from 8 til 5.30 every
day, I have failed to convince the staff overseeing the project, that it is a
good use of my time. Instead, I have agreed to sandwich in nearly 4 hours of
nocturnal observations in between the morning and evening tamarin enclosure
routines, as well as carry out observations on an animal which isn’t involved
in the study, just as a favour to the zoo.
The study is on the nocturnal prosimian (which is a type of
primate), the aye-aye. Aye-ayes are only found in Madagascar and are victim,
like so many other animals, to habitat loss due to illegal fires to make way
for the production of highly desirable crops. Another threat to the aye-aye is
the highly unfair folklore surrounding it; most of the people of Madagascar
believe it to be a bringer of bad luck or even death, therefore, it is killed
on sight and disposed of in a number of ways, including hanging it up at the
edge of a village, so that its evil spirit is removed from the area, along with
people leaving the village.
It is for these reasons that these perfectly innocent
animals are kept in captivity and used in captive breeding programmes and the
conditions in which they are kept in captivity are the focus of my study. The
research involves trying out different levels of illumination within the
enclosures of the aye-ayes and seeing which they prefer, by assessing their
behaviour. I am also evaluating the opinion of visitors regarding the different
lighting conditions, as negative feedback relating to lighting is regularly
received, with comments like “spooky” and “frightening” commonly cropping up.
The aye-aye has been named the most bizarre mammal alive,
and I agree. As well as eating fruits, nectar, eggs and seeds, they forage for
wood-boring insect grubs in a similar way to a wood pecker. Compared to the 1st,
2nd, 4th and 5th digit, the 3rd
digit on each hand is extremely skeletal and highly specialised; among other
purposes it is used to tap repeatedly (3+ times a second) on the surface of
trees and logs to detect sub-surface goodies. The tapping produces different
sounds, according to whether or not below the surface of the wood is hollow
(indicating a possible treat), or not. The large, mobile ears detect the
difference in sound and the aye-aye therefore knows when to start gnawing at
the wood to get inside. But, but, but, the final part of this elaborate,
lightning fast sequence is the reward; after all the hard work put in to
locating the grub and carving a hole using rodent-like front teeth, the aye-aye
simply inserts it’s special middle finger into the freshly made hole and fishes
around beneath the outer layer of the tree for the high energy, high protein
snack inside.
This foraging technique is required to access many of the
foods presented to the aye-ayes at Durrell in order to provide mental
stimulation, and potentially, necessary skills to pass on to any young that are
produced.
Anyone with experience in twilight photography will sympathise with me on the difficulty of getting a good quality shot, therefore, stills were ruled out, given the capabilities of my camera. The above pictures are freeze-frames from videos I took. I took videos to avoid distressing the aye-ayes with the red light my camera insists on using when the flash is turned off.
In other animal-related news…
Whilst cycle to
Durrell for an evening of skyping and general life-admin on the computer, a
half-inch moth decided to make a bed out of my ear drum and nestled in to the
deepest point of my outer ear. A kind dog walker took me to his nearby house
and gave me some cotton buds and water to extract the unwelcome occupant,
however after I spent 10 minutes fishing around, probably making the situation
worse, he offered to take me to A+E.
After swiftly being
dealt with the front-of-house staff at the hospital I was ushered through to
the ward, where my little guest remained elusive and undetected for a full five
minutes. Finally I found myself lying on my side with an earful of olive oil and a
drowned insect. Poking and prodding took place for the next 10 minutes, the
pain of which was only beaten by the attempts of the intruder trying to fly out
of my head in the wrong direction, prior to it meeting its oily end. On
completion of the retrieval operation I was congratulated by the staff of the
A+E department for a) actually having something in my ear and it not being a false
alarm, and b) having something so substantial up there! I have the specimen in
a container which the hospital gave me as a souvenir and have been showing it
off to my friends - who kindly gave me a lift home and shared a fish and chips
with me! Two bottles of wine were delivered promptly to the man whose BBQ I had
ruined earlier in the evening and the largest box of chocolates I could find
was given to Jess, the friend who kindly collected me from the hospital!
