This weird-looking primate’s extra-long fingers give it an extra-gross talent
Humans aren’t the only animals to pick their nose and eat the contents, a new study has shown.
Researchers have for the first time documented the behavior in a primate known as the aye-aye, a most unusual-looking species of lemur. The Journal of Zoology published the findings on Wednesday.
Anne-Claire Fabre, a curator at the Natural History Museum of Bern, in Switzerland, and associate professor at the University of Bern, observed an aye-aye picking its nose while she was filming the animals at the Duke Lemur Center, a sanctuary and research facility in Durham, North Carolina.
Using a low-light camera, Fabre captured the female aye-aye, known as Kali, indulging in this questionable pastime.
“It was impossible not to notice this aye- aye picking its nose,” Fabre, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
“This was not just a one-off behaviour but something that it was fully engaged in, inserting its extremely long finger a surprisingly long way down its nose and then sampling whatever it dug up by licking its finger clean!”
Including aye-ayes and humans, 12 species of primate have been observed snacking on snot.
Unlike humans’ relatively short digits, the aye-aye’s long and skinny middle finger is perfectly shaped for deep digging. A reconstruction of the animal’s nasal passage based on a CT scan suggests its curved finger can reach all the way back into its throat to root around for mucus.
Adapted from: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/26/world/aye-aye- nose-picking-intl-scli-scn/index.html. Access: 21 Dec. 2022.
According to the news, the "extra-gross talent" consists of