Aye Aye Deadly 60 Bites

On Deadly 60, I've had loads of incredible animal encounters.

Here is just one of my many favourites.

This is Deadly 60 Bites!

Madagascar is home to some real wildlife weirdos.

And here in this zoo is one of the strangest-looking predators

I've ever seen.

It's the aye-aye.

This is such a spooky experience.

You could almost totally forget that you're in a zoo,

with this crazy goblin.

Crikey!

I think she thought my finger was

something edible, for a second there.

When it comes down to it,

they are pretty fierce.

The first zoologists that ever discovered the aye-aye

really didn't know what to do with it.

It's such a mish-mash of animal parts.

It's got a great big, long bushy tail,

so they thought it might be a squirrel.

It also has long incisor teeth, like a rodent, that never stop growing.

So they kind of thought that it was like a very peculiar squirrel,

but it's not at all.

It is a lemur, it is a primate,

but the strangest one I've ever seen.

And if you think the aye-aye looks strange,

the way it finds its dinner is even weirder.

The aye-aye possesses one of the most specialised weapons

in the natural world. That's what makes it deadly.

But that's not a dagger it is carrying around with it,

that's actually one of its fingers.

TAPPING

This skinny, twig-like finger drums against a tree trunk,

while super-sensitive ears are tuned in to the rustlings

of any potential prey hiding inside.

If there is a meal to be had, the aye-aye will find it.

Once locked on, it unleashes its awesome chisel-like teeth,

that make short work of the bark, before poking in that deadly digit

and hooking out a juicy meal.

Look what he's doing right now. Look at that.

Just using that finger to dig out

little grubs that are beneath the bark.

That is crazy!

The aye-aye is truly one of the greatest, weirdest,

insect hunters in the world.

And the strangest animal on the Deadly 60.