Aye-Aye, captain

Today we took a day trip due east and almost all the way to the coast to visit another conservation project.

meat seller in Kianjavato (T.Larsen)

At Kianjavato an extensive reforestation project is attempting to employ community members while linking patches of forest that are home to the greater bamboo and black- and white-ruffed lemurs…and a rare nocturnal critter called the aye-aye. It has long-sparse hair, a pointed face, and exceptionally long middle fingers used to tap on logs looking for bugs before poking and digging them out with said-fingers. The internet photos looked a little creepy, and too strange to be real. Our hike started right off the main road through the village, and it felt so different to walk along flatter, more open, and shorter trails to see the daytime lemurs, and we were rewarded with great views of them.

this forest was so much more open than Ranomafana

Black-and-white ruffed lemur on a jackfruit (T.Larsen)

our trackers, and some local kids

After coming back for lunch, the heat of the day hit me and I attempted to find a place to take a nap, winding up on the wooden floor of an upstairs area where volunteers can pitch tents. Mixed results, but worth a shot.

In the late afternoon we returned to our starting point and began hiking to the aye-aye nest. Unlike the earlier hike, this one became increasingly steep and my enthusiasm waned as I struggled to cling to vines and trunks to prevent me sliding down the mountain. After climbing what felt like most of the way up the mountain, our guides stopped us at a steep, narrow ledge. There was barely room to squeeze in our group as we leaned against the rock and tried not to think about the roots/vines that were the only things holding us up.

our perch for Aye-Aye viewing (R.Neugarten)

As we sat in the dark I questioned our sanity, and wondered if this was just a Malagasy snipe hunt, but my attitude reversed when we started to see the nightlife. At first it was just mouse lemurs, and all those years of kitty cat safaris on the front lawn with my mom paid off as I became an expert at spotting their glowing eyes by the light of our head lamps. And then we saw it: the mother aye-aye leaving the nest in search of food. My lack of research didn’t prepare me for the creepy ball of dark fur climbing across the branches, and it almost felt like a phantom in the darkness that disappeared too quickly and quietly. After all the hiking to get there it felt over too soon, and we decided to stay a little longer. This paid off, as we were rewarded with not only more mouse lemurs but a sighting of the juvenile aye-aye leaving the nest. This shot was impressive, given the precarious location, and made our encounter all the more on par with Bigfoot or Nessie sightings.

the elusive Aye-Aye (T.Larsen)