Mark Carwardine has an article on the BBC Earth News site about the upcoming episode of the TV series about the Aye-Aye Lemur.

One of the many repercussions of Madagascar's coup, which took place in March 2009, has been a dramatic rise in criminal networks plundering the country's protected areas for precious hardwoods and wildlife.
[...]
the recent breakdown in law and order, and the unwise withdrawal of foreign aid agencies, has wiped the smile from many faces.

From a wildlife point of view, in particular, it has resulted in huge numbers of lemurs, including several endangered species, being captured for the pet trade or butchered for sale to restaurants.

Denver Zoo has been celebrating the birth of a baby Aye-Aye Lemur, only the second to be born in the USA. ZooBorns.com has the news and pictures, along with this YouTube video.

Denver Zoo is proud to announce the birth of a new aye-aye, a rare endangered primate found in Madagascar. The male infant was born Saturday, April 18, but still does not have a name. The infant’s birth is significant as it is only the second aye-aye to be born at a North American zoo as well as the first to be conceived at a North American zoo. The new aye-aye is currently in a nest box in Denver Zoo’s Emerald Forest building inside the Primate Panorama exhibit. Visitors will be able to see the youngster as he grows and becomes more self sufficient.

The newborn had a low birth weight, but Denver Zoo veterinary and primate staff diligently provided supplemental care and intense management of mom and infant. Eventually this resulted in appropriate weight gains and successful maternal care by the infant’s mother. His weight at birth was 82 grams, but he soon doubled that in roughly two week’s time to 164 grams as of May 4, 2009.

If anyone visits and gets any more pictures, do let me know as I'd be delighted to post them on the site.

Following the comments on the ZooBorns site led me to this article on the previous birth at San Fransisco Zoo, and this super video.

Stephen Fry added this picture of an Aye-Aye lemur to his Twitter feed the other day.

Please welcome new born Aye-Aye lemur "Raz" to the world. Raz was born in captivity at Bristol Zoo about two months ago, and is being hand-reared by his keepers. Sky News has the story.

His name is short for Razafindranriatsimaniry - a Malagasy name meaning "son of a Prince or noble man who envies nobody".

One of his keepers, Caroline Brown, said: "We made the decision to hand rear this infant in advance of his birth because his mother has not had much success rearing her babies.

"So far he is doing well. He is gaining weight and seems strong. Aye ayes are quite slow developing babies and require an intensive feeding regime.

(Image from Sky News and Bristol Zoo Gardens)

I thought I'd share these interesting animations by Iain Gardner from the UK.

Firstly, check out his film "Flight of the Dodo" which features Carl Jones talking about his work in Mauritius with the Pink Pigeon and Echo Parakeet.

And now, check out these "Sketchbook" animations of endangered animals such as Aye-Aye, Gorilla, Polar Bears and Rhinos. Iain says "These studies are as much about memory as they are observation. Memories are all we will have left of these species unless more is done to protect these wonderful creatures in the wild."

Here's a couple of videos of Kintana, the Aye-Aye baby from Bristol Zoo. Cute? You be the judge...

The current issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#381) features an interview with novelist Jacqueline Rayner about her Tenth Doctor novel "The Last Dodo". She said that the idea of an "I-Spy book of extinct animals" tickled her, something that would be, on the face of it, impossible... Unless you were a Time Lord.

Doctor Who Magazine asked the question:

DWM: Was your interest perhaps piqued by [former Doctor Who Script Editor] Douglas Adams' Last Chance To See? You've referred to a few of the same very endangered species as he did - the aye-aye, the kakapo and so on...
No, I've been interested as long as I can remember - I was a passionate member of the then-World Wildlife Fund. But both the radio series and book of Last Chance To See are heartrending pieces of work, which I deliberately didn't reread while doing my research - I didn't want to risk subconsciously plagiarising anything. But anyone who's not experienced Last Chance To See, please go out and get it now!

I just discovered a couple of videos on You Tube of Kintana, the baby Aye-Aye Lemur who was born back in 2005.

And thanks to John who sent me this nice endangered animals slide show over at Slate.com. First endangered animal featured here is the Aye-Aye, with a fabulous big picture of (possibly the same) baby in captivity.

Yes, we're talking about something grotesque here, so grotesque, in fact, that locals consider it to be an evil omen and kill the animal on sight. But losing it would mean the collapse of an entire branch of the mammalian evolutionary tree.

The article links through to the ARKive video page on Aye-Ayes where you'll find lots of great movies of the Aye-Aye Lemur in skeletal fingering action.

Here's an Italian blog page with a great picture of a baby Aye-Aye lemur - Placida Soffitta (Google Translation to English)

This may or may not be Kintana, the Aye-Aye born at Bristol Zoo a couple of years ago. Our blog entries from April 2005 #1 and April 2005 #2 have more pictures.