- Where to see one
- 3 U.S. zoos in our directory hold aye-aye, confirmed against each zoo's own animal list.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated
This species has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List, so it sits outside the threat scale entirely.
About the aye-aye
The aye-aye is a long-fingered lemur native to Madagascar and the largest nocturnal primate in the world. It has rodent-like incisors that grow continuously and a thin middle finger. To find food it taps on trees and listens for echoes that signal hollows, then gnaws a small hole and uses the slender finger to hook out grubs and larvae. This habit, called percussive foraging, fills the ecological niche of a woodpecker. Early naturalists mistook it for a rodent because of its teeth, and it is the only living member of its genus.
Aye-aye facts
- Percussive foraging takes up 5 to 41% of its foraging time.
- Only the striped possum and trioks of Australia and New Guinea are known to find food in a similar way.
- Early naturalists classified it as a squirrel-like rodent.
- A second species, Daubentonia robusta, appears to have died out within the last 1000 years.
Where to see aye-aye in the U.S.
3 zoos across 3 states
Find the closest one
Rank the 2 zoos holding aye-aye by how far they are from you. Your location is used in your browser to sort this list and is never sent to us.
1 more zoo holds aye-aye but has no coordinates on file yet, so it isn't ranked here. It's in the full list below.
Florida· 1
North Carolina· 1
Ohio· 1
AZAThe Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Accredited members have passed an independent inspection of animal care and welfare, safety, conservation and education, repeated every five years. Many smaller facilities never apply, so “not accredited” isn't a verdict on its own. What accreditation means · How we check this
Built from each zoo's own published animal list.
